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THE EARLY 



^ONWERSION 



OF 



P/iildren. 

BY L. ROSSER, D.D. 



•X;I'I;I;I;I^X = I = I'I'I;I : I : I;k r ;I;I^;I;I;I;I;I;Z^I-I;X-I;I-Z : I-I : I;I^X 



THE 



EARLY CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. 



,1 1 



0/ BY 

l:rosser, d.d. 






i < 



Printed for the Author. 

Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

Babbee & Smith, Agents, Nashville, Tenn. 

1891. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, 

By Leo Rosser, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



*1 



f 






PREFACE. 

Although much has been written on the moral training of 
children, yet I do not remember to have seen more than incidental 
references to their early conversion. Hence this treatise. I have 
carefully avoided all subtle distinctions which tend more to con- 
fuse than explain the subject, and omitted all questions of use- 
less and tedious controversy. 

Ashland, Va., 1891. 

(3) 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. Paoi 
Infant Justification 7 

CHAPTER II. 

Early Regeneration 11 

Chapter III. 
Early Regeneration (Continued) 23 

Chapter IV. 
Relation of Children to the Church 28 

Chapter V. 
Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood 32 

Chapter VI. 
Advantages of Early Regeneration 36 

Chapter VII. 
Objections to Early Regeneration Considered 53 

Chapter VIII. 
Obligation of the Church 61 

Chapter IX. 
Appeal to the Church and Parents 70 

Chapter X. 
A New Era 79 

Chapter XI. 
Facts 89 

(5) 



EARLY CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Infant Justification. 

Infant salvation is one of the plainest truths and 
dearest doctrines taught in the Bible. It is founded 
exclusively on the death of Christ, and is inwoven in 
the code of grace. Probably the clearest and strong- 
est scripture in proof of infant salvation is the fol- 
lowing: "As by the offense of one judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation; even so by the right- 
eousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto 
justification of life." (Rom. v. 18. ) Here we are at the 
fountains of life and death to man. Co-extensive with 
the hereditary evils of the one are the gracious bene- 
fits of the other. The plain and blessed meaning is: 

1. All infants are born in a state of justification. I 
know not a more glorious doctrine of redemption than 
this. The guilt incurred by Adam, and all attached 
to his sinful nature, was unconditionally canceled by 
Christ's atonement, and consequently is not now at- 
tached to the sinful nature inherited by his posterity. 
With the first promise, u the seed of the woman shall 
bruise the serpent's head," Christ pledged prospect- 
ively atonement for Adam's sin, abrogated absolutely 
the paradisaical law, and consequently annulled for- 
ever the relation of Adam and his posterity to that 

(7) 



8 Early Conversion of Childt 

law. None can be held responsible or condemnable 
under a law repealed. No man, therefore, is con- 
demnable or can perish for Adam's sin. The argu- 
ment is now brief. As by the prospective atonement 
of Christ, the promised seed, the Adamic law was met, 
" magnified," and repealed forever, the condemnation 
of Adam tinder that law was canceled forever, and 
consequently his posterity can never be condemned 
for his sin. The atonement of Christ does the double 
work: it is the ground of the repeal of one law and 
the enactment of another. All the fortunes of human- 
ity now follow the second law, that of grace. Had 
there been no atonement, Adam would have perished 
without posterity. I never could see how guilt and 
condemnation could be incurred by an irresponsible, 
helpless infant, though born morally evil. Reason 
rejects the dogma and cordially embraces the doctrine 
of universal and unconditional infant justification 
through Jesus Christ. You can no more deny the 
right of the infant to justification than you can deny 
his right to salvation, and you can do neither without 
severing his relation to Christ. 

2. Infant justification also entitles all infants un- 
conditionally to initial life, whereby at the earliest 
responsible age they can repent, believe, and be saved, 
which shall be considered at length in the next chap- 
ter. On the ground of infant justification, all infants 
dying in infancy inherit unconditionally all the bless- 
ings contained in the atonement of Christ — that is, 
dying before responsible age, the infant is saved with- 
out faith; living to responsible age, it is saved by 
faith. 

3. Take another scripture, the first promise of 



Infant Justification, ( .) 

grace to the Bible: "The seed of the woman shall 
bruise the serpent's bead 1 will put enmity between 
thy seed and herseed" What does God mean? He 
means, first, thai the promised seed Jesus shall atone 
i\u- and repeal Eorever the law just now enacted, and 
violated by Adam. Secondly, that the redemptive law 
shall be instituted for the Adamic law. Thirdly, that 
the spirit shall now freely and unconditionally impart 
to Adam initial life, a new principle by which he is 
made a probationer under the redemptive law, and 
consequently he feels the germination of hope in de- 
spair, the stirrings of contrition for the paradisaical 
sin, and may exercise faith in the promised seed for 
pardon, regeneration, and restoration. He is not now 
the subject of utter spiritual death, for antagonism be- 
tween the two principles of spiritual death and initial 
life begins. And, fourthly, this antagonism shall 
continue in his posterity to the end of time. In a 
word, the transmission of spiritual death and the im- 
partation of initial life shall both be universal and 
unconditional. 

In other words, imagine Adam unrelented and un- 
restrained by the new, quickening, and controlling 
principle of grace, and you have total depravity with- 
out help or hope. Imagine his posterity bereft of 
this new, quickening principle, and you have total 
depravity without help or hope. All that Adam be- 
came in the instant he sinned is, by our unrepeala- 
ble law of hereditary descent, reproduced in his pos- 
terity to the end of time. By hereditary descent 
from Adam, the nature of every man is simple, un- 
mixed, uncontrollable enmity against God. The new, 
quickening, and opposing principle of initial life is 



10 Early Conversion of Children. 



from Christ, and is not and never can be inherited 
from Adam. 

But what has this to do with the conversion of chil- 
dren? Much every way. First, the total depravity 
of children is proved beyond doubt. Secondly, the 
salvation of children is impossible without regenera- 
tion. Thirdly, their regeneration cannot be the re- 
sult of any process of a nature totally depraved, and 
there is no hope of their salvation from this source. 
Fourthly, the grace of God provided for the salvation 
of Adam is likewise provided for the salvation of his 
posterity. Fifthly, consequently the relation of the 
regeneration of children to the atonement is next to 
be considered. 



CHAPTEK II. 

Early Kegeneration. 

I shall not stop further to prove that man, by de- 
scent from Adam, is totally depraved — is evil, and 
only evil. It never has been and never can be proved 
that infants are born holy by virtue of Christ's atone- 
ment — that is, that their unconditional justification 
entitles them to regeneration, except in the case of 
those dying before responsible age. Nor shall I stop 
further to prove that Jesus Christ, " by the grace of 
God, tasted death for every man," and that " the grace 
of God, which bringeth salvation, has appeared unto 
all men " — that is, that every man, under the code of 
redemption, has a degree of spiritual life uncondition- 
ally imparted by the Holy Spirit, by which, in due 
time, he may resist inherited depravity, repent, be- 
lieve, and be saved. In other words, every man in- 
herits active initial enmity from Adam, and active 
initial life from Christ. Antagonism between these 
two principles begins with their earliest germination 
in childhood, and continues till one or the other is 
extirpated in this life. 

If there is not this partial initial quickening in 
every man, you might as well offer animal life to a 
corpse as to offer him salvation. And so all the moral 
beauty in childhood is referrible to initial life, and on 
initial life the child is constituted a probationer and 
held responsible for repentance and faith at the ear- 
liest age he is capable of repenting and believing. No 

(ii) 



12 Early Conversion of Children. 

man can any more say that God has given him too 
small a degree of this initial or spiritual life to over- 
come moral evil inwoven in him than that he gave to 
Adam and angels an insufficient spiritual strength for 
their probation. 

But initial grace is not regenerating grace. It is 
not religion. It is the groundwork of moral obliga- 
tion in man. It is ability to repent and believe in 
order to be regenerated. And, though no actual sins 
may have been committed by the morally disciplined 
child, while such a case would be a rare exception, 
yet faith, in the proper sense of the term, would be 
binding on the child at responsible age in order to 
regeneration. The relation of initial life to regen- 
eration is seen as follows: 

1. Spiritual emotions are awakened with the earliest 
stirrings of initial life. Confound not intellectual 
with moral weakness in childhood. If there is any 
moral power at all in childhood, it is enough as the 
germ of moral activity. Moral good and evil bud 
blended, but separate in childhood, how early none 
can tell; and so, as soon as initial life begins to stir, 
spiritual emotions are awakened, and there is always 
moral strength enough to act, and the spirit is always 
present to guide the submissive child. Thus rever- 
ence for God, one of the first-fruits of initial life, is 
aw r akened at so early an age that no one knows when 
he felt its first stirring. How often you hear at home 
and in the infant class at Sunday-school, among the 
first imperfect lispings of childhood, a few broken 
notes of old familiar songs, and, in some instances, 
the most difficult pieces sung by the youngest chil- 
dren how sweetly and admirably! Why should not 



Early Begem ration. L3 

the tirst Btirrings of initial life originate spiritual 
emotions preparatory to conversion and allnre to ( tod 
at the earliest age? In theadull these Bpiritual emo- 
tions load to repentance, faith, and regeneration, and 
there is no reason why they should not lead to the 
same blessed results from their earliest incipiency 
iii childhood. And never let it be overlooked that 
religious emotions are aroused and excited in child- 
hood by the Spirit, which are afterward confirmed 
by reason, and so the matured mind is fortified 
against doubt, backsliding, apostasy, skepticism, and 
infidelity. 

2. Spiritual ideas may be had at he tearliest age. 
Who knows when he first had the idea of a God? of 
sin? of guilt? of a Saviour? of a duty? Let it not 
be assumed that these truths are above the intellect 
of the child, for they are not only enjoined by God in 
the training of children, and inculcated at home and 
in the Sunday-school, but a knowledge of them is 
often manifested in earliest childhood. Why, there- 
fore, should conversion be delayed a moment be- 
yond the conception of these great truths? What 
more is required for the conversion of the adult? 
And forget not that the Holy Spirit can instruct the 
little child in spiritual truths as well as the philoso- 
pher, as we shall presently see and shall often see in 
this treatise. 

3. Spiritual conviction may be produced at the 
earliest age. The Spirit "shall reprove [convince] 
the world of sin." With the first stirrings of initial 
life in the heart, intellect, and conscience, the little 
child may be convinced by the Holy Spirit of sin and 
a sinful nature. This cannot be denied without de- 



14 Early Conversion of Children. 

nying that childhood has sensibility, intellect, con- 
science, and a sinful nature. 

4. Genuine repentance may be exercised at the ear- 
liest age. What is repentance? Under conviction 
of sin as sin, it is sorrow for sin as sin, confession of 
sin as sin, renunciation of sin as sin, and prayer for 
the forgiveness of sin as sin. It is nothing more in 
the adult. It is all this in childhood. Who that has 
made careful observation has not seen all this in the 
penitence of very little children? The tenderness of 
conscience in childhood! Did you ever think of it? 
To me the anguish of their first awakening and re- 
pentance is like what would be the remorse of young 
sinful seraphim repenting just outside heaven. What 
a sudden and painful change have you noticed in 
their consciousness of sinfulness and guilt — the fires 
of guilt kindling in their agitated breasts, and the 
gloom of guilt overshadowing their sweet faces. One, 
writing to Mr. Wesley, says: " When I was five or six 
years old, I had many solemn thoughts about death 
and judgment. I wanted to be good, but I knew not 
how. I was often in great trouble for fear I should 
die and go to hell. If at any time I told a lie, I was 
like one in hell. 1 was afraid to be one moment by 
myself, for I thought Satan would come and tear me 
to pieces. And so I continued till I was eight years 
old, when I received a measure of the love of God. I 
loved Jesus so that I thought I could suffer any thing 
for his sake." ( " Wesley's Works," Vol. in., p. 356. ) 

Explain as others may the tears and prayers and 
cries of children in time of revival, I have no other 
explanation but the immediate awakening and draw- 
ing of the Spirit, the same as in the adult penitent. 



Early Regem ration, 15 

Nor can the sincerity and genuineness of their earliest 

repentance be denied, unless it can he proved that 
they have not an evil heart by nature and have com- 
mitted no sin, or, haying an evil heart and having 
committed sin, that the Spirit cannot convince them 
of either. You forget that the Spirit can convince 
a little child both of his sinfulness and sins and ex- 
cite a corresponding contrition as deep and genuine 
as in the adult. I have often seen the penitential an- 
guish of little children at the altar as great as their 
young hearts could bear and as clear as the most ma- 
tured minds display. In times of great revival, sud- 
denly the Spirit, on the basis of initial life and in- 
struction already received, by a divine charm moves 
multitudes of children to penitential tears, cries, and 
prayers. The divine persuasion is so sudden and en- 
ergetic that in them it seems to be uncontrollable. 
They hear, they see, they feel, they fear, they tremble, 
they weep, they yield, they pray, and know as well as 
you or I what they are about, and they are in the 
dawn of saving faith and regeneration. 

5. Saving faith may be exercised at the earliest age. 
This is the turning-point of this whole treatise. You 
fear the children do not know T what saving faith is. 
I tell you they know more about it than the adult pen- 
itent does. Justifying faith is supernatural in all 
cases, old and young. It is the gift of the Spirit in 
all cases of true repentance. It is not the work of re- 
flection or reason, and hence is a mystery to the wisest 
unregenerated philosopher, theologian, or logician. 
The less a man is a child in humility, docility, and sin- 
cerity the more difficult it is to believe; indeed, faith 
is impossible without the absolute submission of 



1G Early Conversion of Children; 

childhood, and Christ says so: "Whosoever shall not 
receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall 
not enter therein." Do not imregenerate men gener- 
ally, especially the learned, express their ignorance of 
saving faith and wonder what it is? But the submis- 
sive, penitent child encounters no difficulties but nat- 
ural enmity, which is now in the germ; and sense of 
guilt, which is less than yours; and ignorance, which 
is no greater than yours; and this enmity the Spirit 
slays, and this guilt the Spirit cancels, and this igno- 
rance the Spirit removes in the instant it gives saving 
faith. 

I repeat, saving faith is easier and clearer in a lit- 
tle child than in the adult. As saving faith has not 
its origin in the unaided, unnatural reason, heart, and 
will, but in the co-operation of the Spirit, this co-op- 
eration in the penitent child is unresisted by the 
doubts and fears and errors and prejudices, and all 
other drawbacks to penitence and faith in adult age. 
The ignorance that restrains and oppresses the adult 
has no weight with him. Without the timidity, halt- 
ing, reviewing, reflecting, analyzing, groping in pro- 
found gloom, which embarrass the adult, he leaves 
the solution of every difficulty and mystery to the 
spirit of promise, and is led at once by the spirit to 
Christ. Away, then, with the idea that the child can- 
not know what saving faith is. True, he may not un- 
derstand it as the learned divine does, or as he will 
when his reflective powers are matured, but he can 
see Christ as his Saviour as clearly as you can. I say 
more clearly than you can, and after awhile will un- 
derstand saving faith doctrinally as well as you, just 
as he can now see the light of the sun as well as you 



Early Regeneration. 17 

do, and after awhile may understand the laws of ligW 

and vision as well as you do. And what I hint yon of 
the blind man, blind From his birth, who denies that 
Ins child, born with good eyes, can see the lighl of 
the sun? Why infer from your Spiritual blindness 
that the Spirit cannot give spiritual sight to your 
little child? Or, pious parents, why doubt that the 
Spirit can give spiritual sight or faith to your peni- 
tent children as well as he did to you? It is not sur- 
prising that ignorance of spiritual things in parents 
should cause them to fear mistakes and deceptions in 
spiritual things in their children. But the fear is 
groundless. I have observed that those parents who 
know least of Christ doubt most, if they do not op- 
pose, the conversion of their children, while the re- 
verse is true with those parents who know most of 
Christ; and I add that there are instances on record 
in which pious little children have led their uncon- 
verted parents to Christ as a little child may lead a 
blind philosopher in the right path by the light of 
the sun. 

6. Kegeneration is possible at the earliest age. This 
follows from the preceding. No one will deny that 
the child dying in infancy, before the age of account- 
ability, as is his birthright under the code of salva- 
tion, is regenerated by the Spirit and taken to heaven. 
So, as soon as the child reaches the age of accounta- 
bility, believing, it may be regenerated by the Spirit, 
though as yet it may not be guilty of any actual sins; 
for it is conceivable that the first stirrings of initial 
life, under proper training and the unresisted guid- 
ance of the Spirit, may prompt the child to give his 
evil heart to Christ. At this point, let it never be for- 
2 



18 Early Conversion of Children. 

gotten, the Spirit can help the child to think, feel, will, 
believe, love, and obey. " Out of the mouths of babes 
and sucklings God has perfected praise." Now, there- 
fore, as the child with the earliest incipiency of reason, 
conscience, heart, and will, under the quickening of 
initial life and aid of the Spirit, may believe unto re- 
generation before sin has been committed, surely he 
may do all this at the earliest time after the guilt of 
actual sin has been contracted. Happy parents, hap- 
py children, happy age of the Church, and happy era 
of the world, when the conversion of children shall be 
sought before innate depravity issues in actual sin! 
If this be possible (and the possibility is undeniable), 
then surely the possibility of conversion at the ear- 
liest age after actual sin is settled forever. 

I will put the possibility of the early conversion of 
children in the strongest light I can. They are born 
in a state of justification, though with the seeds of 
good and evil in them — the former inherited from 
Christ, the latter inherited from Adam. There is no 
reason why they should ever forfeit justification. In 
proof: 

1. If children are not born in a state of justification, 
then what becomes of all children dying before they 
are capable of actual sin ? They cannot be saved, of 
course, because no one can be saved in an unjustified 
state. What then? I answer: Dying before the 
guilt of actual sin has been incurred, and the con- 
demnation attached to moral evil inherited from 
Adam having been unconditionally canceled by the 
atonement of Christ, they are regenerated by the 
Spirit and taken to heaven — that is, they are regen- 
erated by the Spirit without repentance and faith, for 



Early Regeneration, 19 

as yrt they are noi responsible for repentance and 
faith, as yet they know nothing of repentance and 
faith, as yet have done nothing demanding repentance 

and faith. Here, then, in the case of those dying in 

infancy there is not only the possibility bnt the cer- 
tainty of the earliest regeneration regeneration fe- 
fare responsibility. 

2. Discriminate between a sinful nature and actual 
sin. The guilt attached to the sinful nature of chil- 
dren, as already shown, is universally and uncondi- 
tionally canceled by the atonement of Christ, and 
consequently condemnation cannot be incurred but 
by actual sin, which implies responsibility or the op- 
eration of enlightening and restraining grace. Born, 
then, in a state of justification, how can the child in- 
cur condemnation but by his own voluntary and act- 
ual sin, or resistance of the grace that would continue 
him in a state of justification and lead him to seek 
regeneration? The child born in a state of justifica- 
tion has the divine right to claim, by faith, regenera- 
tion as soon as he can know it is his right and before 
any sin has been committed. Teach the child tliis be- 
fore he commits sin. He is born justified. He forfeits 
justification only by actual sin. Before he incurs the 
guilt of actual sin let him claim regeneration by faith, 
and so perpetuate his justification to the end of life. 
In other words, dying in infancy, justification enti- 
tles to regeneration without faith; living to responsi- 
ble age, faith perpetuates justification, which entitles 
to regeneration. If the infant, dying, may be regen- 
erated at the earliest irresponsible age without faith, 
why may he not be regenerated at the earliest respon- 
sible age by faith? The possibility of the latter can 



20 Early Conversion of Children. 

no more be denied than tlie possibility of the former. 
If sin is necessary in childhood, then childhood is 
not responsible for sin. But sin is not necessary in 
childhood; therefore the child may be regenerated be- 
fore he commits any sin, whatever the force of inher- 
ited depravity, the world, and Satan. 

3. Discriminate between justification and regenera- 
tion in the infant and in the adult. In the adult sin- 
ner infant justification has been forfeited by actual 
sin, and is recoverable only by repentance and faith; 
the infant is already in a state of justification, and 
dying in that state he is regenerated by the Spirit 
and taken to heaven. In the adult sinner condem- 
nation has been incurred by actual sin, which now can 
be canceled only by faith, which carries with it re- 
generation; in the child there is no condemnation, for 
as yet he has committed no sin, and so at the earliest 
age he can exercise faith, he may seek regeneration 
by faith. The adult sinner obtains both justification 
and regeneration by faith; the child, being in a state 
of justification, obtains regeneration by faith, and so 
continues in the narrow way. The adult gets back 
into the narrow way by faith; the child continues in 
the narrow way by faith. 

4. Discriminate between sanctification and regen- 
eration. Because children are born in sin — that is, 
with a sinful nature — is no proof that they are in the 
broad way; for all Christians, with very few excep- 
tions, as their experience painfully assures them, carry 
in them the remains of the carnal mind inherited from 
Adam which they control by grace every step in the 
narrow way till they are entirely sanctified. Are they 
in the broad way? God forbid. Why may not this 



Early !><</< nt mtion, 21 

Btruggle with inherited corruption begin with regen- 
eration in childhood before sin is committed? Why 

may not the regenerated child avoid actual sin as well 
Bfl the regenerated adult? And why may not the re- 
generated child be sanctified wholly as well as the 
regenerated adult? Faith is the condition in both 
casts, and faith nnto sanctification is easier in the 
regenerated child than in the regenerated adult, as is 
evident from the countless and incalculable difficul- 
ties of a late repentance. 

5. Discriminate between repentance unto justifica- 
tion and repentance unto sanctification. Eepentance 
unto justification in the adult is conviction, sorrow 
for and renunciation of sins committed; but the child 
is already in a state of justification, and so continues 
till sin be committed. Repentance unto sanctification 
is conviction, sorrow for and renunciation of the iti- 
being of sin, to extirpate which ordinarily is, but need 
not be, a long struggle with the regenerate. Why 
may not the regenerated child begin this struggle and 
maintain it without committing sin, till the inbeing of 
sin is extirpated? Thank God, he may do it. 

6. Finally, discriminate between faith unto justifica- 
tion and faith unto entire sanctification. Faith unto 
justification has reference to sins committed, but the 
child, not having committed sin, continues in a state 
of justification. Faith unto entire sanctification has 
reference to the extirpation of the inbeing of sin. 
Why may not the regenerated child exercise this 
faith too, and so continue to the end of life? He may 
do it. 

In a word, the adult repents and believes for the 
forgiveness of sin committed and the regeneration 



22 Early Conversion of Children. 

and sanctification of the evil nature that committed 
sin. The child may believe unto the regeneration 
and entire sanctification of inherited evil nature be- 
fore any sin has been committed, and so never leave 
the highway to heaven. 



OHAPTEB III. 
Eakly Regeneration (Continued). 

1. When may a child bo converted? I had almost 
said as soon as he is born; but this I will say: As soon 
as he begins to speak with the dawn of reason, and 
often before he begins to reason, the work of religious 
impression at least may begin. Indeed, before reason 
begins, impression is made by maternal sympathy, as 
is evident from the first responsive smile, look, and 
gesture of the infant. Memory, the affections, and 
conscience, too, begin with reason, and therefore, in- 
stead of saying how late, I know not how soon a child 
may be converted, or how early he may give plain and 
clear evidences of conversion; instead of placing con- 
version as late in childhood as possible, I would look 
for it as early as possible. This is my deliberate view. 
God has simplified the Bible to the youngest reason 
and the earliest susceptibility of religious impression. 
The Bible is the most attractive book in the world to 
childhood. The most of the Bible most men know 
they learned in childhood, taught probably by a pious 
mother, when and how no man remembers. With the 
earliest incipiency of reason, conscience, and feeling, 
the child may be converted. Besides, the Almighty 
Spirit can soften the work of regeneration to the 
weakest capacity, as he does in the regeneration of 
those who die in infancy. 

A little girl, nine years of age, converted at seven, 
presented herself for membership in the Church, when 

(2S\ 



24 Earl// Conversion of Children. 

her pastor asked her: "At what age do you think a 
child can be converted?" She answered: "As soon 
as it knows it is a sinner and Jesus is a Saviour." I 
know no better answer. When a child knows it is a 
sinner and Christ is a Saviour, then it can have faith 
in Christ and be converted by the Spirit and know it. 
Christ is the chief Shepherd: cannot the little lambs 
hear his softest call and follow him? Christ is knock- 
ing at the little doors scarcely closed: cannot those 
within hear his gentlest tap, and open wide the little 
doors? Christ says, "Give me thy heart:" can they 
not give him all their little hearts? Christ says, "Do 
what thy hands find to do with all thy might: " cannot 
their pure little hands do some work for him ? Christ 
says, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: " cannot 
their nimble little feet pass the threshold and leap 
for joy down the narrow w r ay? Christ says, 'My yoke 
is easy and my burden light: " is not Christ's yoke so 
easy that a little child can wear it, and his burden so 
light that a little child can bear it? Christ promised 
a crown, and harp, and palm, and robe, and shout, and 
place at his table in heaven: is there no crown in 
heaven small enough for their little heads, and no 
harp tunable to their little fingers, and no palm suit- 
able to their little hands, and no robe to fit their lit- 
tle forms, and no part for their low, love-toned voices 
in the songs and shouts before the throne, and no seat 
at the table of the saints for them ? What do you say 
to all this, mother, whose love is inferior only to 
Christ's? Are they too young to be the " heirs of God 
and joint-heirs with Christ" forevermore? I answer, 
" No," and re-affirm that as soon as the child can know 
any thing, or can fear any thing, or can love anybody 



Early Regetii ration, 26 

or any thing, he can know, fear, and love God, and so 
l>e regenerated. Samuel was actually consecrated to 

God as soon as he was k - we med" probably when three 
years old. l>o you hear? Then you may begin thai 
^u))\, or sooner, to train the children Cor God. Let 
no one doubt this without doubting the word of God, 
violating parental obligation, denying the capacity, 
and neglecting the souls of the children. 

:i And let it never be forgotten that no time for 
reflection or strengthening the mental powers is re- 
quired after the first spiritual convictions in the child, 
or in any one else. Let it never be overlooked that 
with the first intelligible quickening of initial grace 
the child, or any one else, by faith, may be regener- 
ated The mind that can bear awakening grace can 
exercise saving faith and receive regenerating grace, 
and sanctifying grace too, for sanctification begins in 
regeneration. Grant that the mind of the child is 
immature. That is no valid reason why the mind shall 
wait a moment beyond awakening grace for mental 
vigor to receive regenerating grace; for, while you as- 
sume that the mental powers should have time to 
strengthen in awakening grace, you overlook a funda- 
mental truth of redemption that regenerating life is a 
growing principle too, and so may immediately suc- 
ceed the feeblest awakening and grow with the growth 
of the regenerated mental powers and by its invigor- 
ation enable them to discharge their legitimate func- 
tions through the eternal progress of being. Why 
may not this growing process of regenerating life be- 
gin in earliest responsible childhood, as well as at any 
subsequent stage of mental development? Besides, 
while you are waiting for the supposed mental vigor, 



26 Early Conversion of Children. 

awakening grace is suspended; and now what appall- 
ing uncertainty shrouds the future! Iu a word, why 
should you throw out of the question the growing life 
of regeneration, the only proper invigorating and con- 
trolling power, and leave the mental faculties and in- 
nate depravity to their natural and rapid growth? 
Why not allow regenerating life a chance in this con - 
test of growth, more especially when so much depends 
on a fair start in the race for eternity? Regeneration 
will carry with it its own increasing strength through 
the indefinite expansibility of the soul in time and 
eternity. 

3. Parents often look for too much as evidence of 
conversion in childhood. You expect your converted 
children to be Christian men and women at once, in- 
stead of babes in Christ— Christian children. You 
suppose that all the damage of the defects and neg- 
lects in previous parental training will now be re- 
paired and all your trials ended. You imagine that 
they should show more of religion in the family than 
you do, and that they should be your standard of 
piety rather than you theirs. And thus they are 
crippled, discouraged, and fall away. If any one 
needs encouragement, or should have patience, watch- 
fulness, and charity exercised toward him, it is the 
religious child. In every "babe in Christ" there is 
much of fear and self-distrust. How many a lit- 
tle child, like the timid, unobtrusive woman, presses 
in and touches unobserved the hem of the seamless 
garment! Of all converts little children are most re- 
luctant to profess conversion, need encouragement 
most, and are soonest discouraged. A cold, silent 
suspicion or doubt of the genuineness of their conver- 



Early Regi tu rut ion. ii 

BioD may nip the blessed work in the bud Omit in- 
struction, encouragement, and the tenderest care at 
their conversion, when they need help and guidance 
most, and the omission may be irreparable forever. 

-I. It is astonishing to what extent tin 4 mind of the 
child may be developed before he is three year- 

age: what a "great treasury of knowledge he has; 
how many persons, places, things he knows; how many 
comparisons he forms; how many logical conclusions 
he draws; what skill he has in constructing sentences 
and making discourse." Dr. Skinner, a celebrated 
French infidel, profoundly remarks: "Give me the 
first five years of a child's life, and I will teach it to 
break every law of God and man." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Relation of Children to the Church. 

1. The relation of children to the Church may here 
be considered — a matter of extreme importance and a 
subject of much controversy. Without entering ex- 
tensively and elaborately into the discussion, this 
much is undeniable: Only those who are regenerated 
are members of the spiritual Church. None are re- 
generated in unconscious and irresponsible infancy 
except those dying in infancy, who are uncondition- 
ally regenerated by the Spirit and taken to heaven. 
Till death, therefore, they were not in the spiritual 
Church at all; but, on the ground of unconditional 
justification, as already considered, dying in infancy, 
they were entitled to regeneration, and thus their 
membership in the spiritual Church began at death; 
and hence the assumption that all infants are born in 
the spiritual Church is untenable and must be dis- 
missed from our inquiry. What then? I answer: 
The regeneration of those who live to responsible age 
depends on faith; and hereby becoming members of 
the spiritual Church, they should be formally recog- 
nized and admitted as such, no matter how early they 
are regenerated. Thus children should be regener- 
ated and be old enough to understand and assume the 
obligations of Church-membership before they are 
formally admitted into the Church. This, in my 
judgment at least, is the only wise, true, and safe 
ground. 

(28) 



Relati n of Children to the Church. 29 

'2. And this is the ground taken by our ("nine]): 
"Aa soon as they ( children ) comprehend the respon- 
sibilities involved in a public profession of faith in 

Christ, and give evidence of a sincere and earnest de- 
termination to discharge the same, see Hint they be 
duly recognized as members of the Church, agreeably 

to the Discipline." (See Discipline.) A public pro- 
ion of faith ill Christ that does not imply regen- 
eration is defective at bottom, however earnest and 
sincere may be the determination to discharge the 
responsibilities of the Christian faith; for no one can 
be in and out of the spiritual Church at the same time, 
though he may be at the door and knock long and 
hard for admittance. 

3. But you ask: " Is not the baptism of infants a for- 
mal sacramental recognition of their Church-member- 
ship?" I answer: No. For infants are not born in a 
regenerated state; for, I repeat, it never has been and 
never can be proved that infants are born holy by 
virtue of Christ's atonement — that is, that their un- 
conditional justification entitles them to regeneration, 
except in the case of those dying before responsible 
age; and the heretical dogma of baptismal regenera- 
tion has been exploded long ago. But infant baptism 
does imply that the subject is in a state of justifica- 
tion, and sets forth the prospective rights, privileges, 
and responsibilities of the infant subject. And so 
baptized children should be "faithfully instructed in 
the nature, design, privileges, and obligations of their 
baptism." (See Discipline. ) And so when regenerated 
they come for formal admission into the Church, they 
are required to " ratify and confirm the promise and 
vow of repentance, faith, and obedience contained in 



30 Early Conversion qf Children. 

the baptismal covenant," (See Discipline.) Their 
baptism should be observed as soon as convenient by 
the Church, and their earliest conversion sought and 
found, and open, formal membership should follow. 

-i. Some persons, overlooking the laws and condi- 
tions of nature and grace, have regarded regeneration 
in early childhood, in rare and lovely examples, as the 
result of a gradual and insensible process of grace, 
independent of repentance and faith; and some have 
gone so far as to suppose that the child is not totally 
depraved, but retains a remnant of life from Adam 
that in and of itself may gradually and insensibly ger- 
minate in conversion; and some have gone to the last 
limit of presumption in the supposition that all chil- 
dren are born holy. The first deny the conditional- 
ity of regeneration in responsible childhood, and the 
second and third deny the total depravity of man — 
both fundamental doctrines of the Bible, which is a 
sufficient answer to all three theories. But I shall 
give more attention to the last. 

1. If infants are born holy, then when they become 
responsible and sin, depravity in them is self -caused, 
and that, too, under the most unfavorable conditions, 
and all the Scriptures that trace the total depravity 
of man to Adam are false. On this theory, every 
child with his first sin remands himself to the state 
in which Adam left him, and now initial life is neces- 
sary to his recovery of holiness. And so nothing is 
gained by this theory in the case of all infants living 
and sinning. 

2. Nothing is gained by this theory in the case of 
all infants dying in infancy. If at birth they were 
made holy by the Spirit, so at death they might have 



Relation of Childn n to the I ] hurch. . ,; 1 

been made holy by the same Spirit En either i 
they are prepared Eor heaven l>\ the Spirit. S«> noth- 
ing is gained Eor such as die in infancy, whether they 
are made holy at birth or at death. 

.'). It' infants are born holy, then when they become 
accountable they need not exercise faith to become 
holy, and bo continuing holy till death, need never be 
"born again," a privilege which Christ declares no 
man can claim. 

4 Initial life is sufficient, and supersedes the ne- 
cessity of holiness as the basis of ability and obliga- 
tion in responsible childhood. 

5. Confound not nature with grace. The child is 
not good, and can never become good by nature. Im- 
agine no germ of beauty, or grace, or virtue, in him 
as an emanation from Adam or as a relic of paradise. 
Where or how nature and grace meet and mingle in 
man none can tell, but they are never to be con- 
founded. The light and life and love and hope and 
sweetness in childhood are from grace. 

6. That some children arc converted so early and so 
insensibly that no definite date of conversion can be 
fixed, is not denied; but this is no proof that children 
are born holy, for it is easy to see that in such cases 
repentance and faith also are not definitely remem- 
bered. It is not difficult to imagine that the triumph 
of repentance and faith over innate depravity in such 
cases was almost without a struggle. O that the 
whole human race might so emerge into life eternal! 
O blessed millennium! It is possible. 



CHAPTER V. 

Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood. 

How soon the little child can tell all his heart to 
Christ! He has no motives to conceal; no love to re- 
strain; no hate to dissemble; no fears to haunt him; 
no cares to harass him; no deceit to veil; no errors 
to correct; no excuses to plead; no prejudices to re- 
linquish; no besetting, habitual, darling sins to aban- 
don; no evil habits to overcome; no strong temptations 
to encounter; no evil associations to sever; no chains 
of fashion, custom, and public opinion to break; no 
fetters of pride and shame and worldly show to sun- 
der; no sensuality to resist; no vices to quit; no crimes 
to lament; no feuds to settle; no resentments to sub- 
due; no rivalries, competitions, and jealousies to ex- 
cite; no injuries to repair or forgive; no distrust or 
suspicions to indulge; no skepticism, no infidelity to 
renounce; no keen regret and remorse to depress; no 
hardness of heart like a rock in his way; no second 
self to rend from Satan and the world; no perplexity 
about the mysteries of conversion and redemption; 
nothing to withhold from God but his young heart, 
and that he gives with a sincerity, willingness, and 
faith next to the promptings of original innocence, 
and with an ease, I venture to say, next to that of a 
pure seraph, for as yet innate enmity to God is so 
feeble that it is most easily restrained, overcome, and 
slain by the Spirit. 

O ye who are bound from head to foot with these 
(32) 



Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood. 83 

Btrong manacles, how can ye "be converted and be- 
come as a Little child M withoul an efforl st ronger I ban 
that required to break the chains of the felon in his 
cell, and next to thai required to Liberate the alien 
angels? The little child has but to Btep back into the 
narrow way, if indeed as yet he is out of it; what a 
Long and dismal journey have you to retrace! He is 
hut a few steps from the solid shore; but you, how 
far adrift on the stormy sea and driving toward that 
other shore! He can kneel at his mother's side, his 
little hands in hers and his head in her lap, and soar 
to heaven with her words of faith and hope and love; 
but your lovely, precious, pious mother sleeps in her 
grave, her pure spirit above, and none, none like her, 
can ever teach and help you in prayer. He at the 
first signal enlists for training and discipline in the 
camp of Christ, to fight under his banner for life; 
you have fought so long and obstinately under the 
flag of Satan that you think it more ignominious to 
yield than to hold out till outlawed by justice and 
slain by death. He can look back a short distance to 
the innocence of the cradle and the nursery; but what 
great, black mountains of guilt shut out your vision! 
He can bend in adoration at the feet and lean his 
head confidingly on the bosom of Jesus; but what 
power can drag you from devotion to Satan? All the 
voices of heaven are sweet and distinct to him; but 
to you they are distant, faint, and dying, and other 
and terrible voices approaching. Life and eternity 
are open before him, and he is about to start; you are 
near the end of a weary, wandering, wicked, wasted, 
woful life. O what would you give or do or suffer 
to be a child again! His heart trembles, yields, and 
3 



Early Conversion of Children, 

melts into penitence and love on the gentlest touch 

of Christ's finger; yours is now so hardened by the 
scars of the sword of the Spirit that the almighty 
blade rebounds with every stroke, as if it struck a 
rock. He can now awake in the image of God, as if 
he had been born amid the flowers of Eden or awaked 
a cherub in heaven; but you are so penetrated and 
deformed by sin and guilt that, stripped of the ap- 
pendages of this life, you would seem to have been 
born in the bottomless pit. He, converted and dying, 
becomes a young heir of glory; you, unconverted and 
dying, become an old heir of perdition. He, converted 
now, after a long life, will leave earth with few re- 
grets and soar to the highest heaven; you, unless con- 
verted, will close a long life with black despair and 
descend to the lowest hell. 

Is it not easier to crush, the serpent in the egg than 
to untwist his horrid, rigid coils, and rend him full 
grown from his gasping victim? Is it not easier to 
extinguish the spark than to quench the expanding 
blaze ? Is it not easier to arrest disease in its incip- 
iency than to cure it in its last stages or when the con- 
stitution is worn out? Is it not easier to avoid debt 
through life than to avert insolvency near the close of 
life? Is it not easier to make a whole day's journey 
or do a whole day's work by beginning at sunrise than 
by delaying till meridian or till sunset? Is it not 
easier to enter the narrow way in childhood than to 
turn from the broad way in old age? 

How often when awakened does the presence of the 
multitude hold back the adult like the grip of death, 
while the young are insensible to this influence ! What 
entanglements of unlawful pursuits do the young es- 



Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood, 86 

cape, from which bo many grown persons when pow- 
erfully impelled to repenl 6nd it nexl to impossible 
to extricate themselves! How often have I Been this, 
rarely witnessing an example of deliverance. How 
often do you hear hardened, aged sinners Lamenting 
on a death-bed: "I remember when a child I often 
wept on hearing about Christ, his love for poor sin- 
ners, and his death to save us. I was taught to read 
the Bible and to pray. I saw some of my intimate 
friends beginning in their young days to be Chris- 
tians; but I am now unpardoned, hardened, and un- 
prepared! " 

In a word, the will can control but cannot change 
the heart! While it cannot prevent the stirrings of 
unbelief and enmity in the natural heart, and may 
restrain them, it cannot change the heart. But it can 
bring the heart to Christ to be changed, and the act 
of the will that does this trustfully is saving faith. 
This act is easiest in childhood, without doubt, and the 
earliest in childhood the easiest; the latest in life the 
hardest. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

Advantages of Early Regeneration. 

1. The foundation of personal piety and usefulness 
is laid deepest and firmest in earliest conversion. It 
is a maxim of all ages, "the child is father to the 
man." Children at an early age give indications of 
their future trade, calling, or pursuits. Solomon 
says: "Even a child is known by his doings, whether 
his work be pure, and whether it be right" The con- 
science is active early, therefore, and the best founda- 
tion that can be laid for life is in early conversion. 
The constitutional law is: "Train up a child in the 
way he should go: and when he is old, he will not de- 
part from it." Follow this law strictly, and there will 
be no exception to it — not one. Do this till he is a 
man, and he is established for life. Every exception 
is referable to some fatal defect or neglect in early 
training, and the greatest neglect is that of early con- 
version. No amount of training, without early con- 
version, is enough to insure the infallible fulfillment 
of the laws and promises made to childhood. You 
compromise the central principle of the law and the 
the conditionality of its fulfillment when you overlook 
early conversion. You may even efface the blessed 
effects of early conversion by stopping short in pious 
discipline, by allowing the influence of others to neu- 
tralize your own, by the non-concurrence of one of 
the parents in religious training, by not always setting 
the right example, by not praying for God's help, by 
(36) 



Advantages of Early Regeneration* ->7 



" indulgence and severity thai destroy parental au- 
thority" and influence, or by conformity to the spirit 
and practice of the world. Train righl from early 
conversion to manhood, and your child will be saved. 
L say will be, for he is as yet a free agent, and will not 
depart from it. Parents and the Church, aim at the 
earliest conversion of the children. This is the high- 
est end. You will not accomplish much but vanity if 
yon do not accomplish this in the beginning. "All 
the wise men in the world agree that the first impres- 
sions made upon us in our tender years sink the deep- 
est and last the longest. If good precepts and prin- 
ciples are early impressed and fixed, they will be so 
many lights set up in the minds of children to direct 
their conduct through this maze of life; to guide them 
in the ways of truth and in the paths that lead to 
everlasting happiness." (" Delany's Sermons," Lon- 
don, Vol. I., p. 75. ) 

2. Early conversion avoids the extreme hazard of a 
late repentance. I say further on that early conver- 
sion is the best guarantee against backsliding and 
apostasy. I now say it averts the incalculable evils 
and perils of procrastination. Evil habits of heart 
and practice germinating in childhood and youth, 
unless anticipated by early conversion, will erelong 
be almost uncontrollable. What a world of evil, 
trial, and difficulty are most men now enduring from 
habits laid in early life! And not the least evil is the 
advantage which these give to Satan in temptation; 
they are the strong and invisible cords by which he 
leads sinners at his will. When once the child has 
passed the dependent and impressible period, in 
which principles are inculcated and character and 



oS Early Conversio&bf Children. 

habits formed for life, if all arc evil what hope is there 
remaining for his subsequent conversion? On the 
power of early habits the profoundest thinkers have 
displayed their best abilities. And did it never strike 
you that of all habits that of procrastination on the 
subject of conversion is the most easily acquired and 
the most obstinate? that the process of spiritual hard- 
ness is most rapid, and secret as rapid, and obstinate 
as rapid? In what a short lime, and by how trivial 
an act sometimes, may the heart and conscience sink 
into deepest insensibility! Every step of resistance 
of early religious convictions and impressions is at- 
tended with a ratio of danger no archangel probably 
can calculate. The conversion of him who has passed 
the period of youth is extremely doubtful. He who 
unpardoned has passed from the pious influence of 
home will hardly ever be converted, or, if converted, 
will rarely ever be much in religion. And the salva- 
tion of him who is slumbering in carnal security and 
prosperity, who is already a slave to the spirit and 
practices of the world, who is insensible to the means 
of grace, who has endured heavy chastisements with- 
out repentance, who has resisted strong and repeated 
stirrings of the Spirit, who has passed through many 
revivals without conversion, or is depending upon 
morality for salvation, or has grown old in sin, is ex- 
tremely improbable and next to impossible. It re- 
quires not inspiration to foresee that the chances of 
conversion after the period of youth diminish beyond 
all possible calculation. Who can look on the rising 
cloud of despair and venture a step toward its light- 
nings? I throw the whole weight of improbability of 
a late repentance into the scales in favor of conversion 



Advantages of Early Regeneration. 39 

in childhood The hopeful, impressible period of 
childhood can never return, for a man can never bea 
child again. 

And now a<ld the argomenl of fact, and the reae >n- 
ing is perfectly overwhelming and ErightfuL Bow 
few are converted beyond the period of youthl The 
greal body of the Church was converted in childhood 

or youth. About one in ten is converted beyond 
twenty years of age. This is the ratio I have made 
in more than twenty thousand conversions, and 1 be- 
lieve the rule holds good in all the great revivals now. 
Go through your congregation, city, town, or neigh- 
borhood, and the inference is that but one in ten of 
the unconverted over twenty years of age will ever 
be saved! 

To me the saddest spectacle this side the judgment 
is a generation vanishing amid decay and ruins and 
struck with judicial spiritual blindness. I fear I have 
no gospel for the old dead generation waning around 
me. It is like the ghastly valley Ezekiel saw, but 
with no Spirit to resuscitate it. I seem to see the 
Shekinah lifted and hovering in the dim heavens and 
about to vanish forever. I seem to see the dreadful 
word of abandonment written on the wall behind the 
pulpit, and to hear the sounding wings of the depart- 
ing cherubim. Do I not hear, or am I mistaken — 
" Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone? " Do I not 
hear, or am I mistaken — " Woe unto them that are at 
ease in Zion?" Have I not heard — "Pray not thou 
for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, 
neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear 
thee?" O ye dead formalists, lukewarm professors, 
insensible backsliders, saints of the world, and gospel- 



40 Early Conversion of Children. 



hardened sinners, are all your hopes buried in the 
past, and are all your fears on reluctant wing into the 
black future? Have I no more a gospel for you than 
I have for the dead in the grave-yard and the damned 
in hell? O God! is my commission to preach the 
gospel ended with the old dying generation wherever 
I go? When I cry out, "Awake, awake, O arm of 
the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days," do I but in- 
voke the silent heaven as if no God was there? And 
when I bend over the pulpit and shout, " A wake, thou 
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ 
shall give thee light," is it but the blast of the gospel 
trumpet at the mouth of hell, startling the damned, 
but to which not a response or echo is returned? In 
my imagination I follow you to the death-chamber, 
the resurrection, the judgment, and the lake of fire, 
and turn away with the treasures of the gospel to the 
y&ung and rising generation. Ah! I know many, 
many among the rich and great and cultivated of this 
earth to whom I preached in " halcyon days," but 
whom I never expect to see in heaven, like the many, 
many whom I have lived long enough to see die 
without hope! 

3. If this be true (and it is true), then it is also true 
that failure of regeneration at the earliest age possi- 
ble mast be followed by irreparable loss to the child. 
Not that regeneration may not take place at a later 
stage in childhood or in after life, but the loss in holi- 
ness and usefulness sustained by any, the least delay in 
regeneration in childhood can never be repaired ; the 
soul then can never be what it might have been. What 
fond, pious parent has not seen an amiable child un- 
folding from early infancy with every beauty of initial 



.1 (vantages of Early Regeneration, 1L 

grace almost angelic, giving the mosi encouraging 
promise of an early conversion and a life of eminent 
holiness and usefulness, but who, alasl by the ueglecl 
of earliest regeneration and the secret, insensible, and 
gradual force oi Lunate enmity amid the irritations and 
sinful associations of childhood, bas been enticed so Ear 
from Christ that the early promise fades, and waning 
hope gives place to increasing alarm for his future? 
Ah! that lovely child, who might have been the best 
saint out of heaven, may become the worst sinner out 
of hell! At most, though converted at a later stage 
in childhood or youth, and though he may spend a 
long and illustrious life in the service of God, he will 
have suffered a loss time and eternity cannot repair. 
O parents, see in that babe the noble being he may 
become from the earliest conversion, and calculate 
your fears and his fortunes by the delay in his con- 
version. 

Neglect conversion in childhood, and there is no 
principle, law, or promise in redemption ; no power, 
law, or force in the mental constitution; no energy, 
law, or turn in divine providence; no new principle, 
truth, or measure possible in the universe and eternity 
on which you can recover the lost ground. Lose this 
ground, and all your conquests will be doubtful, in- 
complete, superficial, if not evanescent. The solid 
mass of unregenerated humanity will roll on under 
its innate resistless momentum, hardly retarded at all 
by the feeble resistance of regenerated manhood. 
Satan, with the combined evil forces of the past and 
present at his command, stands ready to meet and 
mold the rising generation according to his will — to 
preoccupy the ground and fortify himself in perma- 



<k£ Early Conversion of Children* 

nent triumph. Controlling susceptible childhood till 
manhood, he renders earth nearly as impregnable as 
hell itself is, and proudly defies the recovery of his 
splendid dominions from his supremacy. There is 
a line somewhere between man and devil, and when 
once it is crossed the sway of Satan over both is com- 
plete, final, and eternal, do what you will to recover 
man. That line, with few exceptions, runs hidden 
between childhood and manhood. This side that line 
decisive triumph over the world is to be achieved; 
beyond it all is well-nigh lost forever and ever. This 
is the verdict of the past. It is the Church, chiefly 
converted in childhood, that holds permanently the 
little ground gained this side that line. 

4 The unspeakable satisfaction of parents in the 
early conversion of their children. No greater joy en 
earth to pious parents than this. No greater blessing 
in a family than this. What apprehensions for chil- 
dren as they grow up unconverted! And what ag- 
ony have you, parents, when they die unconverted in 
the bloom of manhood or womanhood! You bend in 
unutterable anguish over expiring vigor, beauty, and 
promise. You wished them to shine in this world; 
you thought of nothing else; and now they are dying 
unprepared! What anguish unspeakable now for 
your vanity! What remorse for the neglect of their 
early conversion and piety! O that they could live 
their brief life again! O that in dying they would 
give some sign, however faint; some smile, some whis- 
per, some look, that they are ready, to console you the 
rest of your life! And you follow them to their early 
grave and see them buried — and no hope! And you 
turn away and go back home — and no hope! And 



Advantages o) Early Regeneration* 43 



von think o( them through all the years of separal iou 

aiu l no hopel the anguish and remorse! And 

did innocence deserve that death at your hai 
How L pity parents, especially mothers, who oppose 
the early conversion of their children! But I pity 
the helpless children morel A few years hence, and, 
parents, if living, you may be weeping over your bur- 
ied dead, the desolations of the old homesteads, the 
fleeting vanities of this world, and the keenest pang 
of all, the fear that your children died unprepared; 
ami then like a flood of fire follows the remorse that 
you opposed their early conversion! You may never 
hear their sweet voices pronounce your pardon! But 
what a joy to parents when their children die radiant 
with celestial loveliness, shouting over death, and 
promising to return for them at their departure or to 
meet them at the gates of pearl on their arrival! 

I know not a more profound and affecting relation 
than that of parents to children. God has made it 
so. Interwoven in our inmost nature are our chil- 
dren. If parents do not love and take care of their 
children, who will? But what affects one most is the 
submissive and confiding dependence of the children 
on their parents. Their authority they instinctively 
recognize as exclusive and supreme. How they love, 
confide in, and follow them! Father! mother! express 
all their soul. What you say is their law. What you 
do they regard as final. Where you go they follow. 
They would follow you to the end of this checkered 
earth. If you go down to hell, they will be almost 
sure to follow you there. They will follow you to the 
church, the cross, the right hand, and into heaven. 
How can you lead them away from God? How can 



44 Early Concert/on of Children. 

fcbey conie to God without overcoming the greatest 
barrier in the world — your departure the other way ? 
By what power less than supernatural can they turn 
their unsuspecting feet out of the father's and moth- 
er's path, and follow Christ? Can they reverse nature 
and leave you? It is next to necessity that they will 
be damned if yon shall be. In the name of God I 
hold you responsible for that necessity. True, one 
older than the rest of the children may be converted 
and lead the others to Christ, and thus so far coun- 
tervail your fatal influence, and so leave you to perish 
alone; or the conversion of your child may lead you 
to repentance. But rarely are the children converted 
where both the parents are unconverted. Thank God 
forever and ever for a pious mother! I want my 
whole family in heaven. 

5. The foundation of the Church is laid permanent- 
ly on early conversion. There is dftfe view of the con- 
version of children which I have never seen given by 
any writer on the subject. All great revivals from 
the beginning have been followed very soon by. al- 
most as great backsliding and apostasy. Luther says 
" that a revival of religion never lasts above a gener- 
ation" — that is, thirty years; and men predict, with 
much truth, "all will be at an end when the first in- 
struments are removed " — that is, a great reaction will 
take place — and almost without exception it has been 
so: a mournful declension, at least, has followed. 
Now all great reformations have been among adults. 
Let the revival begin among the children, and what 
have we? Religion is then laid in childhood, and life 
proceeds from it. The constitutional law of grace, 
" Train up a child in the way he should go: and when 



of Early Uegi neration, 46 

he is old, be will not d< pari from it," will then be 
amplified Excepting rare ca es, one in a thousand, 
it takes the whole life to make b mature and invinci- 
ble religion. .Man, converted in adult life, is too far 

gone in moral strength to do the full work of religion. 
Generally he is not able to stand long against him- 
Belf, the world, and Satan. No wonder is it thai the 
world, strengthened in sin a whole life-time and led 

on by Satan, can bear down a Church converted in 
adult age, and, in a single generation, nearly destroy 
its spirituality. Man, converted in adult age, is too 
feeble to resist the shock. Man, converted in adult 
life, brings with him into the Church so much of his 
old habits and tastes, and so much of the spirit of the 
world, that shortly declension is easy and speedy, and 
the Church, with the exception of the faithful few, is no 
better than the world. But not so with religion laid 
in childhood, strengthening and maturing through 
life. Trees must be transplanted when young to be 
most vigorous and bear most fruit; old trees trans- 
planted ordinarily are feeble, bear little fruit, and 
soon decay. God has given man his whole life to be 
a Christian and do the work of religion, and hence 
the later in life he is converted the feebler is his in- 
fluence and the less he can do for God. The strength 
adequate to uphold the Church and convert the world 
must germinate in childhood and flourish through 
life. The tree that is to cover the world with its 
shade and fruit must spring up in childhood, and then 
in manhood it can resist all storms. 

The two great revivals of "Wesley and Jonathan 
Edwards, it should be observed, lasted longer than a 
generation, and both continue to flourish. But re- 



46 Early ( Conversion of ( •hildn n. 

member in both of these multitudes of children were 
converted. Many of the brightest lights, in our 
Church, in the ministry and membership, in private 
and public life, were converted in childhood; and our 
Church generally, I may say universally, maintains 
conversion in childhood. Let all the Churches rally 
to this in the name of God, and religion laid in child- 
hood will sustain the Church in mature age. You will 
hear no more then of the extensive relapses of the 
past. We shall mourn no more over lost centuries, 
over the decline, decay, and downfall of Churches. 

6. Conversion in childhood is a most fruitful re- 
source of ministerial supply. How often you hear 
the child say, "I w T ill be a rich man," "I will be a 
great man," and in something like prophetic expres- 
sions showing the incipiency of character and future 
pursuits. Why may not the germ of ministerial life 
also be laid in early conversion? It often is; and 
hence we hear the converted child say: "I will be 
a preacher." Men converted late in life are rarely 
called to preach; or, if inclined to the ministry, it is 
so difficult to break up habits already formed and 
abandon pursuits already chosen, that, with rare ex- 
ceptions, they are not of much use to the Church. 
Dr.. Summers says in his capital " Sunday-school 
Teacher," the Sunday-school is "the great theological 
institution of the Church," and adds: "This is, in 
fact, the propaganda de fide of Protestantism." That 
nearly all the ministers and missionaries now in the 
Church have come from the Sunday-school cannot be 
questioned; and the reason doubtless is that, early 
indoctrinated, from childhood having "known the 
Scriptures," soon after conversion they felt called to 



Advanto Early /.'■ I i 

preach what they knew and Eell to be true. Whod 
doI Bee, therefore, thai in the Insensible blending of 
spiritual knowledge and experience in early conver- 
sion reposes the earliest and clearest call to preach, 

as well as the most fruitful source of supply to the 

in i nisi ry ? 

7. The rapid and universal triumph of the gospel 
depends on regeneration in childhood. Where can 

the Church, in the fulfillment of its mission to eon- 
vert the world, begin with less obstacles in its way or 
with a better prospect of success than in childhood? 

The great work there is wholly at the command of 
the Church, under its control, at hand, in docile, con- 
tiding, impressible childhood. But shortly this same 
childhood, neglected by the Church, will unfold its 
own innate enmity against God and arm itself with a 
strength of resistance in unbelief, pride, sensuality, 
love of the world, and sinful tendencies of every sort, 
and set up a kingdom of its own, with Satan as its 
king, that all the learning, eloquence, piety, and pow- 
er of the Church cannot overturn. The Church can- 
not do much with an adult unconverted generation. 

As fallen humanity is reproduced in childhood, so 
the Church should be reproduced in regenerated 
childhood. Initial life is universal in childhood, and 
hence the basis of the Church is already universal in 
childhood. "As in Adam all die" spiritually, " so in 
Christ all men are made alive" in the initial sense; 
and so, as we have seen, may be regenerated in child- 
hood. No sounder maxim than this, that each age 
reproduces itself. "As your fathers did, so do ye." 
Have we not in the incipient constitution of man in 
childhood the original design of God set forth ? Have 



48 Early Conversion of Children. 

we not neglected this great fact and the design of it? 
The germs of moral good are planted by the Spirit in 
the youog mind, so that when one generation has be- 
come barren, worn out, and passed away, humanity 
reproduced in childhood may be a new and fresh start- 
ing-point in religion. In childhood the Spirit does 
not meet man as in adult and confirmed enmity and 
unbelief, when the moral powers are all on the side of 
sin and the world, and reaction is next to impossible, 
but with the dawn of the mental and moral powers, 
and so on in endless progress from generation to gen- 
eration, till time ends. The hope of collective hu- 
manity therefore is laid in regenerated childhood. 

The uniform policy of Satan in all ages and na- 
tions has been to lay the foundation of his kingdom, 
in Church and State, in childhood. And never has 
as efficient a system of education been devised as is 
found in the Romish Church. In monasteries, for 
example, over the cradles of children is a crucifix, 
which is the first thing that greets the child on awak- 
ening and the last that fades on sleeping; and what 
must be the effect on his destiny? Here, in child- 
hood, at the head-quarters of Satan and all false relig- 
ions, let us meet and rout him. 

The nature of regeneration in childhood is the same 
as it is in manhood. Here I take my boldest, firmest 
stand. In conversion in childhood is laid the founda- 
tion of public and private morality, opposition to all 
public and private vices, and repugnance to polished 
sins, popular amusements, such as the opera, theater, 
dancing, and the spirit of the world in fashion, show, 
and sinful indulgence in every form, and this charac- 
ter strengthens through life. Initial, regenerating, 



Advantages of Early Regeneration, 49 



and sanctifying life, Btarting in childhood, will find a 
complete and perfecl consummation in manhood. 

Win this field, and yon have the world. Open the 

fountains of eterna] Life in childhood, and the world 
will be covered with wide, dec]), countless streams. 
Sow the seeds of regeneration and sanctification in 

childhood, and the world will be filled with the fruits. 
If the unconverted fathers will not give up sin audits 
pursuits and pleasures, the converted children will 
decline them. The old Adamic generation will wear 
out, vanish, and leave the world to a regenerated and 
spiritual posterity. True religion carries with it its 
own changes. For example, suppose the Church 
skilled to the highest perfection in music, and ani- 
mated by the Spirit, what taste then would man have 
for the insipid strains of sentimentalism ? In that day 
the music would be more entrancing to the world than 
ever issued from opera, concert, or festive circle. 

I will add what I know not that any one has said 
before on this subject: What the gospel has needed 
in all ages, and what it requires now, as its highest 
proof, is a multitude of clear witnesses to the fact and 
instantaneousness of entire sanctification, prolonged 
and progressing from early conversion through life. 
How much is lost to the evidence of the gospel by 
the late period in life in which Christians ordinarily 
obtain and profess this crowning proof of Christ's 
power to save the world! If the lives of Christians 
were one perpetual sunshine of perfect love from con- 
version till death, and not as now, though not neces- 
sarily, dim variable, and doubtful till late in life, the 
world could not resist the evidence. Who can esti- 
mate the influence of one perfect man? Christians 
4 



50 Early Conversion of Children. 

give their/W/ testimony so late that it is comparatively 
of little value. Men are converted so late in life that 
it requires the rest of life to conquer the acquired 
strength and obstinacy of indulged innate depravity 
and undo the personal and relative evil already done. 
But let this work of entire sanctification begin in re- 
generated childhood, and the inward struggle is feeble 
and soon over, and perfect love will reign and shine 
through the longest life. Nature then will be trans- 
formed by grace. Enmity against God will be extir- 
pated in the germ, Samuels and Timothies fill the 
pulpits and crowd the churches, and the witnesses of 
redemption confound the infidelity and unbelief of 
the world. 

Observe that in the conversion of children you be- 
gin with God's order: "Froni the least to the great- 
est." I quote the whole passage : " I will put my laws 
into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and 
I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a 
people: and they shall not teach every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know 
the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least 
to the greatest." The prophet had his eye on the 
Christian dispensation, embracing in the scale the 
children as "the least," then the poor, then the rich, 
then the great and noble, then kings and rulers, then 
last the learned philosophers and men of genius — 
" the greatest/' We need never hope to reverse God's 
order and begin with the greatest. And is not the 
Church conforming to this very order this hour in 
the instruction and conversion of the children on the 
grandest scale the world ever saw and with a partial 
fulfillment of the sublime prediction? What hope 



Advantages of Early Regeneration* 



for the evangelization of the world when the greal 

and wise and rulers of this earth are themosi difficult 
ami the last to be reached and regenerated by the 
gospel? 1 Bee do hope Eor the conversion of the world 
unless we begin at the other end of the Beries name- 
ly, the conversion of the children. 1 repeat, this is 
God's order. 

Begin here, then, and in the luster of that bright- 
eyed boy probably is the fire kindling that is to flash 
with a pentecostal radiance from the pulpit in vindi- 
cation of the doctrines he is now learning from the 
old Bible at home, and. in the Sunday-school brighter 
than that which beamed from the eye of Paul or Wes- 
ley or Whitefield or an angel. The voice of that lit- 
tle child that whispers the Sunday recitations is yet 
to resound in peals of thunder through the halls of 
legislation more commanding than the voice of De- 
mosthenes that animated Athens, or of Cicero that 
shook the Roman Senate, or of Patrick Henry that 
aroused America to freedom. The mind that beams 
in that young and noble brow as the truths of God's 
word are instilled is yet to dispense law with the 
wisdom of a Moses, a Solomon, or a Marshall. That 
little hand that holds in it the eternal Word is yet to 
wield that double-edged blade in achieving victories 
that shall eclipse the triumphs of Alexander, Caesar, 
Napoleon, or Washington in the very fields, it may 
be, in which those great heroes fought. That voice 
that sings the simple melodies of Zion is yet to pour 
forth strains sweeter and sublimer than ever flowed 
from the harp of Charles Wesley or Watts, and vie 
with David and the seraphim. Those young, great 
souls are now growing strong, it may be, to hold and 



52 Early Conversion of Children. 

guide the helm of human affairs through the wildest 
storms that ever agitated the ocean of human pas- 
sions, and land man on the peaceful shores which he 
has been seeking and from which he has been drift- 
ing since the fall. In those calm, sweet faces do you 
not see the future faculties in our colleges, the lead- 
ers in science, philosophy, the arts, and all learning; 
heralds and rulers in civil government, legislative, 
administrative, and judicial; guides in professional, 
commercial, agricultural, and mechanical pursuits; 
and ornaments in every rank and relation of social, 
civil, and religious life ? O who can say that before 
you and I sleep in the grave those innocent children 
that now look like cherubs come down from heaven 
will not pass the seas and flaunt the standard of the 
cross on the banks of the Tiber, the Ganges, in the 
very heart of China and Japan, and on the remotest 
shores and islands and limits of the world? Is it not 
more than fanciful to say that apostolic energy is 
kindling in these young hearts that is yet to lift the 
great systems of false and defective religion — Eoman- 
ism, Mohammedanism, Judaism, and paganism — from 
the public conscience of a thousand millions, and bid 
man be free at last in the pure light of the gospel? 
With the gates now opening through all the high- 
ways in the world and the heavens and the earth cov- 
ered with the dismal dying splendors of burning Bab- 
ylon, I feel prompted to say that the children are 
born who are to herald the millennial morning and 
send onward the responsive peals of the gospel trump- 
et till lost in the signals of the general judgment.* 

* This paragraph was written thirty years ago. 



CHAPTER VII 
Objections ro Earl* Regeneration Considered. 
Objection to conversion in childhood is in fact a 

denial of the genuineness of the Christian Church of 
to-day, i'or most in the Church to-day were converted 
in childhood, and the objector himself, if converted 
in childhood, invalidates his own conversion. But 
to be more specific: 

1. The most plausible and popular objection to 
early conversion is founded on the supposed imma- 
turity of childhood. You say the child should wait 
till he can be guided by reason; but you forget that 
while you are waiting for this, innate enmity is spon- 
taneously outgrowing reason, and presently will resist 
the strongest deductions of reason, deductions in fact 
ordinarily controlling and useful only to the converted 
heart. You say that the child should wait till he can 
be governed by conscience; but you forget that while 
you are waiting for this, innate enmity is outgrowing 
conscience, and presently w T ill resist the strongest re- 
monstrances of conscience. You say the child should 
wait till moved feeling is matured; but you forget that 
while you are waiting for this, innate enmity is out- 
growing moral feeling, and presently will resist the 
strongest appeals to moral sensibility. You say the 
child should wait till the will is developed; but you 
forget that while you are waiting for this, innate en- 
mity is outgrowing moral freedom, and presently will 
resist the strongest persuasions addressed to the will. 

(53) 



5-± Early Conversion of Children. 

You say (and here is your stronghold) the child 
should wait till he is sufficiently disciplined by moral 
culture to become pious; but you forget that while 
you are waiting for this, innate enmity is outgrowing 
and presently wall resist the whole force of moral 
discipline. You say (and here is your last strong- 
hold) the child should wait till he has formed moral 
habits sufficiently strong to bear him through the 
whole task of religious profession; but you forget 
that while you are waiting for this, innate enmity is 
outgrowing the force of moral habits, and presently 
will bind the soul in its own bonds strong as death 
and hell. Evil habits are more invincible than inborn 
depravity. This is the unanimous judgment of phi- 
losophers, from Aristotle to Hamilton. The emblems 
of the Ethiopian's hue and the leopard's spots not 
only refer to the impossibility of self- renovation from 
natural depravity, but to the greater difficulty in the 
conversion of those " accustomed to do evil " — the de- 
struction of evil habits. For example: it is easier 
for a temperate than an intemperate man to become 
a Christian. 

You wash to protect the child against deception: 
you leave him to the deception of innate enmity. 
You wish to save him from the probability of back- 
sliding: you may forever prevent his conversion. 
You w r ish to avert the possible regret that he pro- 
fessed religion in childhood: you may subject him to 
the eternal regret that he was not converted in child- 
hood; and you may share in this regret. You wish to 
guard him against the reproach of backsliding: you 
may inflict on him the dishonor of never having em- 
braced religion. You fear, should he fall after early 



ctions to Early Regi m ration ( '"// idi n d. 



conversion, thai lie will l>» 4 insensible to religion i 
afterward: you take tin* rery coarse to make him in- 
sensible to religion forever. You Eear be is too young 
to know what repentance, faith, pardon, and a ne^ 
heart are: you are Leaving your child to grow up an ! 
die in ignorance of these great truths and facte. It 
may be you low the world so much yourself that you 
wish the child to enjoy the innocent pleasures tirst 
and thru attend to the grave duties of religion. Worse 
and worse; you neglect and indulge him in the most 
alluring path to ruin, and the fear is that you will per- 
ish together. In all this you overlook the insidious 
and growing power of active innate enmity and the 
decaying power of initial life or grace. 

Can you tell me why this innate enmity should be 
permitted to grow till it can overcome reason, con- 
science, and the will; why initial life should be neg- 
lected and innate enmity be permitted to strength- 
en with the strength of reason, conscience, and the 
will, till it can overcome all these powers combined; 
why initial life may not strengthen with reason, con- 
science, and the will, till it likewise shall control all 
these powers; why yield the whole ground to un- 
born enmity? Is this allowing a fair contest to rea- 
son, conscience, the will, and God? Is not this giving 
the whole advantage to energetic innate enmity and 
wily Satan? Is it not a criminal, fatal, and unpar- 
donable neglect of helpless childhood? What mean 
you by assuming that reason, conscience, and the will 
can control growing innate enmity and that they will 
do it, and yet maintain that these powers cannot be 
controlled by initial life? What, can innate enmity 
become too strong for reason, conscience, the will, and 



56 Early Conversion of Children. 

initial life, all combined; and yet these powers, all 
combined, cannot become too strong for innate en- 
mity? Absurd! Or, tell me, which stirs first and 
strongest — enmity or life? If enmity, then you have 
no time to lose; if life, then seize the opportunity to 
arrest, control, and extirpate enmity; if simultane- 
ous, then let the contest begin with the beginning of 
antagonism between these two moral forces. And 
the argument is complete when it is considered that 
enmity is spontaneous and rapid in its growth, and 
initial life strengthens only by cultivation unto regen- 
eration — that is, initial life, under the concurrence 
of reason, conscience, and will, leads to faith, regen- 
eration, entire sanctification, and obedience — enmity 
dying out at every step and stage in the blessed prog- 
ress. 

Come to matter of fact. Cannot children follow 
bad example? Are there no bad children at home, at 
school, and in the streets? Do they not tell stories 
and curse and say many bad words and do many bad 
things? Do they not fight and quarrel and get very 
angry? Are they not Sabbath-breakers, disobedient 
to parents, spiteful, and revengeful? Bad, yes, in nat- 
ure, growth, and conduct. How is it that the world 
is filled with wickedness from age to age, if it did not 
spring from childhood? " Foolishness [wickedness 
in germ] is bound in the heart of a child." Away 
with the fond fancy of angelic children descended 
from Adam. Wise and heavenly-minded mothers 
have trained a few like little angels on the ground- 
work of initial and regenerating life, and they have 
become great lights in the' world. It is before the 
evil in them is unfolded that " little children" are 



to Early Regi ne\ /. 67 

given as the standard to wricked manhood. Xbu gay 
they know nothing of their natural and gracious state. 
How is it, then, they manifest so much of the good and 

evil principles in them from infancy? Y<>u overlook 
the influence of initial life and moral training in re- 
straining sin from earliest childhood. Imagine 

this restraint removed, and who can fathom the de- 
scent in moral evil unopposed? What would that 
lovely child become if left to inward moral evil un- 
restrained? And now say you that they are too young 
to be good; that they are not sinners; that these 
germs of evil, already unfolding, may not be, and 
ought not to be, destroyed at once; that these vipers 
in them ought not to be crushed before they crawl 
hissing from the shell? 

Besides, you are inconsistent. You pray that your 
children may see their depravity, and be instructed 
in religious truth, that they may be converted at an 
early age; but you overlook the fact that the Spirit 
who shows them depravity, and imparts religious 
truth, can, at the same time, convert them; and so 
you should pray for their immediate conversion — that 
is, if in answer to your prayers, they are led by the 
Spirit to see and feel their sinfulness, they may be 
enabled by the Spirit to resist their sinfulness and 
come to Christ for regeneration. If they feel that 
they ought to pray, they can pray; and if they can 
pray, they can receive the answer to prayer. When, 
therefore, you make these prospective prayers, you 
overlook the answer at hand. 

Moreover, why did you have them baptized at all? 
Why did you teach them from earliest lisping child- 
hood to pray at all? Why did you pray lor them 



58 Early Conversion of Children. 

from their birth? Why have you sent them to the 
Sunday-school? Why have you been teaching, and 
watching, and waiting? and now that the periodof their 
conversion has come, shall you, the parents, frustrate 
all your hopes, toils, prayers, and instructions, and 
undo all that you have done for their conversion? 
You fear they will grow up in sin. Nature cannot 
shake off nor Satan quiet that fear. Yet you oppose 
their early conversion! The very time when they 
need conversion most to establish your labor and in- 
sure their salvation you draw back, and they fail be- 
cause of your weakness and unbelief. 

Finally, what you call intellectual and moral cult- 
ure does not destroy moral evil or depravity, but only 
polishes, strengthens, and confirms it. If moral de- 
pravity diminished with progressive, intellectual, and 
moral culture, your objection would be valid. But 
the reverse is true. A great writer says, " It is rather 
in the higher paths of culture that we often meet 
with the deepest moral depravity and disorder, a 
frivolity of disposition dissolving all relations into 
corruption, an entire deadness for every stimulus of 
holy love; " and he adds that this unsanctified culture 
" does not destroy a single tendency of moral deprav- 
ity, but only conceals and refines them all; so little is 
it able to redeem man that, if it does not become sanc- 
tified by a higher principle, it only more thoroughly 
confirms in him the dominion of sin." (Muller, 
"Christian Doctrine of Sin," Vol. I, p. 333.) 

2. "But they will not hold out: they are too 
young." First, this is the old objection to conversion 
in all cases. Secondly, their fall will be chargeable 
to parental neglect and the neglect of a cold, dead, 



Objections to Early Regeneration Considered. 59 

worldly Church and unfaithful ministry. The lambs 
must be more tenderly cared For than the sheep. It 
is not unusual to Bee young converts after a revival 

soon pine and perish in a dead, formal Church, and 

then their conversion is questioned or disparaged, 
when the whole guilt is with the Church. Thirdly, 

they generally hold out better than adult converts, as 
already proved. If the later in life conversion oc- 
curs the more difficult it is to continue steadfast, it 
is not illogical to conclude the earlier in life it oc- 
curs the easier it is to endure unto the end. Bays 
Spurgeon: "I have during the past year received 
forty or fifty children into Church-membership; and 
among those excluded out of a Church of twenty-seven 
hundred, I have not had to exclude a single one re- 
ceived in childhood." Fourthly, you mean " they 
should wait till they have light enough." Granted; 
that is what I mean, and have proved. They have 
light enough in childhood. Fifthly, " too young, too 
young," you say, mothers, " to be taught religious 
ideas and acquire religious tastes." Ah! you dress 
and teach them and polish their manners and mold 
their taste for this world. Stop! How is it that at a 
very early age they see defects and inconsistences in 
you, in temper and habits, and never forget them? and 
virtues and excellences in you they remember with 
delight to their dying day? How is it they never for- 
get their own defects and those of each other in child- 
hood? Sixthly, when children are old enough to go 
to school, they are old enough to be converted. If 
any should say your children who go to school are 
dunces, you would flare up instantly, and probably 
never forgive the accuser. Seventhly, when old 



GO Early Conversion of Children, 



enough in your judgment to be converted, and the 
Church in time of great revival labors so hard in vain 
for their conversion, alas! now you say " they are too 
old — O pray for my children — O that they had been 
converted in childhood! " Eighthly, parents who ob- 
ject to the early conversion of their children are de- 
fective in spiritual truth and life themselves. Such 
parents at heart oppose the conversion of their own 
children. I never knew pious parents doubtful or 
indifferent about the conversion of their children. 
Indeed, what thoughtful, pious mother has not wished 
she could renew the training of her children from 
their earliest childhood? 

3. " But I fear they will be governed by undue ex- 
citement." Do you mean by the terrors of the law? 
Not so; for the terrors of the law are softened by the 
Spirit to the tender conscience and sensibility of chil- 
dren, though they blaze like hell-fire on hardened 
souls in vain. They glow mildly to move the young. 
And you forget that children can fly from danger as 
well as grown people. And as to sympathy, it is one 
of the strongest impulses in humanity, which by the 
Spirit will be tempered and guided aright in every 
truly awakened child. But if awakening be terrific, it 
will be soothed to unutterable peace. On the other 
hand, I have noticed children of religious parents so 
insensible in a revival as to be proof against its power, 
or they are the last converted, and on examination have 
found the explanation in defective religious training 
in childhood and inconsistency in the life of the par- 
ents, especially the father. 



OHAPTEB VIII. 

Obligation of the Church. 

1. The Church is responsible for the godly disci- 
pline of the children, chiefly in relation to their ear- 
liest conversion. The highest spirituality is required 
to discharge fully this responsibilify — that is, to ap- 
preciate fully the importance of their earliest conver- 
sion, to overcome objections and prejudices to their 
conversion, to encourage the first promptings and ex- 
pressions of penitence, to countervail any fear that 
they will soon fall, to pray and believe for their con- 
version, to instruct them in saving faith, and to train 
them after their conversion. Otherwise, the Church 
will be indifferent and doubtful, if not positively dis- 
couraging, when they are awakened. How often have 
I seen this in the incipiency of a revival in a cold and 
formal Church. But where the love of Jesus, w r armer 
than a mother's, burns in the Church, there is a con- 
stant readiness for the conversion of the children, 
Indeed, as fervid zeal and as strong faith are required 
for the conversion of children as for the conversion 
of adults. This zeal is not natural affection, for many 
parents who would die for their children wholly neg- 
lect their conversion. Spiritual concern for the ear- 
liest conversion of the children is divine, and is in- 
tense in a holy Church and ministry. It is the 
deepest impulse, highest duty, and purest delight of 
a holy Church and ministry to seek the conversion of 
and train the children for Christ and heaven. No 

(61) 



G2 Early Conversion of Children. 

wonder a dead Church and ministry have no reviv- 
als. The " lambs " in their folds would die as soon 
as born. A Church will decay that neglects the con- 
version and religious training of children. " If you 
would have a flock of sheep, you must take care of the 
lambs." How cheerfully they follow the chief Shep- 
herd when led by the old sheep and pastors! 

Parents, pastors, and Churches ordinarily and crim- 
inally overlook the conversion of children. And 
hereby the Spirit has been grieved in all ages and is 
still grieved. Beware of grieving the Spirit: (1) By 
overlooking the children in a revival; (2) by neg- 
lecting them after they are converted. I do not know 
any thing that grieves me more than these two things. 
I have seen a revival nipped in the bud or suddenly 
decline at its height by the first; and by the second, 
no one can calculate the evils to the dear, helpless 
lambs. O shame and woe on Zion! And, alas! the 
Church often opjwses the conversion of children; or, 
in times of revival — I have seen this — hardly regards 
penitence in children as answer to prayers or proof of 
the presence of the Spirit, or worthy of much zeal; 
and well is it, if a degree of shame and disappoint- 
ment does not ensue when none but little children are 
found at the penitential altar. Man is the same in 
all ages. The disciples were offended when little 
children were brought to Jesus before the multitude 
that he might bless them, and this opposition or in- 
difference indicates a high degree of pride and a low 
degree of grace in a Church. But not so with the 
apostles. They cried out, " The promise is unto you, 
and to your children ; " and whole households were bap- 
tized, and doubtless many w T ere converted children. 



Obligation of the Church, SIB 

I have said thai in childhood you eD counter and con- 
quer Satan at the foundation of humanity, and thai 
you need the conversion of childhood by the Spirit to 
hold the ground. Therefore, oppose or neglecl the 

conversion oi! childhood, and you grieve the Spirit. 

Satan knows this, and so in your opposition or neglect 
he gains the day. Stop short of conversion, and the 
children of responsible age are yet in his kingdom. 
Meet him, then, with the word of the Spirit. It is 
written, "They that seek me early shall find me;" 
that is one stroke that not only cleaves his helmet, 
but cuts the Gordian knot of their early conversion. 
It is written, "Remember now thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth;" that is another stroke. It is 
written, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of 
God;" that is another. It is written, "From a child 
thou hast known the holy Scriptures, that are able to 
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus;" that is another. O fight Satan 
bravely for the children. Bring them quickly to the 
Spirit; or take it for grained you will grieve, vex, 
provoke, and quench the Spirit and not be made in- 
strumental in the conversion of the grown people, for 
the grown people around you are the same whose con- 
version you probably opposed or neglected in child- 
hood. And so through long* years of spiritual drought 
and gradual decay you will have no revival at all, and 
will be dependent for existence on accessions from 
abroad or the conversion of your children through 
revivals in other Churches, as is the case with many 
Churches that maintain a feeble existence this day. 
That Church most zealous in the conversion of the 



G-l Early Conversion of Children. 

children lias the best guarantee of prosperity and 
perpetuity, for it has in itself the largest measure of 
spiritual life and conforms most strictly to the gos- 
pel standard. "The gates of hell" shall not prevail 
against such a Church. 

There is no better evidence of spiritual decay and 
decrepitude in a Church than indifference to the con- 
version of children. And the reverse is true: there is 
no better evidence of spiritual progress and vigor in a 
Church than zeal in the conversion of children. "What 
is this zeal? Take the case of Peter. Observe, Jesus 
does not ask Peter, " Ought you to love me?" Every 
unconverted man could unhesitatingly say yes to that 
question. Nor is it, "Do you desire to love me?" 
Every awakened sinner could say that. "Nor is it, 
"Have you ever loved me?" Every backslider could 
say that. Nor is it, "Do you profess to love me?" 
Every dead formalist could say that. But, "Do you 
love me? " Peter answers: "Lord, thou knowest all 
things; thou knowest that I love thee." As if he had 
said: "I know I love thee: thou knowest that I love 
thee: I appeal to thy omniscience: thou art my wit- 
ness: look me through and through, analyze my feel- 
ings, my motives, my will, my inmost soul, my con- 
sciousness." What more could the angels in heaven 
say? Love reposes serenely forever in the approving 
omniscience of God. It can go no higher. We are 
happy in the approval of friends, of good men, an 
honest public, a grateful country, a holy Church, an- 
gels; but God's approval is final. This is the open 
face of God in heaven. And love that fears not the 
eye of God will undertake the work of God. " Feed 
my sheep, feed my Jambs." O noble, bold, impetu- 



Obligation of the Church* 05 

oua Peter, thy love, in its intensity and perfection, 

knows DO hounds or doubts now, and Jesus forgets 

the past. 

And notice the extreme delicacy of Christ. He 
does not rebuke, abash, crush Peter with Jus denial, 
though he implied it all in the searching repetition. 
lie knew the anguish excited by the melting look and 
the shrill midnight signal. He remembered how 
Peter was the first to enter his open sepulcher, and 
how just now he plunged into the sea. So Christ oft- 
en as delicately reminds us of our failures by the 
deep, tender whisper: "Lovest thou me." And the 
command "Feed my lambs" kindles quenchless zeal 
for the conversion and godly training of the chil- 
dren. 

2. The Church in all ages essentially needs some 
institution whose exclusive object is the cultivation of 
spiritual gifts and graces in converted children. The 
want of such an institution is universally and pain- 
fully felt by the Churches at this time, at least by 
those who look lower than the surface, and I will vent- 
ure to express an opinion that I know not has been 
given heretofore by any one: A wide-spread reviv- 
al among the children alw r ays intuitively suggests 
the pressing need of some special institution for 
their cultivation in spiritual gifts and graces, by which 
we may advance them indefinitely beyond the effi- 
ciency of all the forms of the past. Who can say that 
the Spirit will not erelong suggest to the Church the 
incorporation of such a blessed means in the organ- 
ization of the Sunday-school itself — some regulation 
like the class-meeting as a part of Sabbath instruc- 
tion and training — an institution, in a word, for the 
5 



CO Early Conversion of Children. 

cultivation of spiritual gifts and graces in converted 
childhood from their earliest germination, for every 
grade, office, order, and ministration in the Church? 

I fear the waning formal generation of the Church 
could never be allured to the observance of such an 
institution. It is too decrepit, weak, and stiffened in 
formality and worldliness to do much for itself now. 
The body is firm, hard, dry, withered, and wrinkled 
— no longer smooth, soft, blooming, and flexible — the 
very arteries are bony and hardly capable of propel- 
ling the thin blood from the feeble heart to the cold 
and dying extremities. Death is naturally ensuing. 
It has had its day. " Dust to dust " is at hand. 

And why may we not logically infer that such an 
institution will be originated in the Sunday-school? 
No one doubts that the Sunday-school is the sugges- 
tion of the wisdom from above. Who that dispas- 
sionately surveys the amplitude and inherent energy 
and tendency of the Sunday-school can for a moment 
question that the Spirit is commencing now at the 
very foundation of humanity on which to reconstruct 
the Church, and by consequence human govern- 
ments? And what now remains to effect this recon- 
struction but the conversion of the children, and the 
origination and incorporation of such an institution 
in the Sunday-school itself? Without such a regu- 
lation the Sunday-school organization is radically de- 
fective, and, I repeat, we may confidently anticipate 
that the Spirit who originated the Sunday-school will 
suggest the institution required for its perfection and 
for the rapid promotion, if not the final accomplish- 
ment, of the sublime design of the gospel. Mr. Wes- 
ley, in his journal, says: " I met the children; a work 



( Obligation of the ( 'hurch. &i 

which will exercise the talents of the most able 
preachers in England." And l. will add: in America 
this day. 

Patriotism, Learning, and religion arc in the field; 

but disorder exists, and some central bond is wanting 
to complete the coalition. Discipline and combina- 
tion would be perfected by this institution for the 
noblest and greatest achievements of Christianity. 
Alexander trained the children wholly in the r<nnj) 
for war. Think not that the present great movement 
in the Sunday-school is only human. No; its essence 
is found in all the covenants of God made with chil- 
dren and in all the measures of the true Church for 
their moral training from the beginning, as we shall 
see further on. And as progress is the unalterable 
law of providence and as wise government in Church 
and State is the science of adaptations, let us not 
overlook the law and the science in the nature and 
indications of the Sunday-school. 

Heretofore, from the beginning, a new era of re- 
vival, I have said, was laid in manhood, and, as in our 
fathers' days, when the children were converted, the 
revival was considered as dying out. But in our age 
revival ordinarily begins in childhood and youth and 
closes with manhood. Doubtless this reverse is ref- 
erable to the profound influence of the Sunday- 
school, but it also indicates the necessity of some 
institution peculiarly adapted to the maintenance of 
piety and the cultivation of spiritual gifts among 
the children. 

Nor are we wholly without light in this hopeful in- 
quiry. The class-meeting, now also so generally neg- 
lected, comes nearer what we want than any thing 



G8 Early Conversion of Children. 

else we have, though, in some respects, it would be 
unsuitable to pious childhood, as, for example, the 
converted child knows nothing, or but little, of the 
temptations, trials, and triumphs of riper years, and 
so could not profit so much from fellowship with the 
adult as with those with whom he is more congenial 
and familiar. Let the pious children and youth be 
arranged in classes, and holy, experienced men and 
women be appointed as leaders, and the pastors faith- 
fully superintend all. Let the General Conference 
exercise its highest wisdom in legislating on the 
subject, and incorporate the required institution with 
suitable regulation in the fundamental organization 
of our Church government. 

This is a matter of the last importance. Without 
such an institution, the piety of the children will gen- 
erally decline or fall to the low level of a formal 
Church or be defective at best. Nothing but such an 
institution, except the wisest pious training at home, 
can protect the babes in Christ from the contamina- 
tion of the world and a dead and formal Church, with 
which they are in constant contact, and at a time too 
when a blight might blast the young plant forever, 
or from which it could never fully recover. With- 
out such an institution we have no suitable means 
for discipline of childhood and youth in spiritual 
gifts and graces. Since the class-meeting has been 
practically abandoned, there has been a chasm be- 
tween conversion and the ministry, the pew and the 
pulpit in our Church that nothing else remaining or 
since adopted can repair. The consequent declension 
of a suitable supply to the ministry none can deny, 
and the lamentable effect upon the Church none can 



Obligaiio of the Church. 69 

calculate! Thai nursery p£ the ministry and the 
Church, the class-meeting, may and should be speedily 
supplemented by a similar institution for the chil- 
dren 1 mean converted children and those seeking 
conversion. Here, as was formerly the case in tho 
class-meeting, in sacred seclusion and holiest fellow- 
ship spiritual gifts and graces might be cultivated 
from their earliest incipiency and raised to their high- 
est perfection. Here the young candidate for the 
ministry might have the germ of his future call fully 
unfolded, and the foundation of ministerial character 
and usefulness deepest and firmest laid. Hence the 
Church would draw its best resources for all its of- 
fices from the humblest to the highest, and not, as is 
now so often the fact, be left to the necessity of a mea- 
ger and unsuitable supply. The Church of the Old 
Testament had the "school of the prophets," the 
Church of the New its " school of the catechumens," 
and primitive Methodism its class-meeting. O for 
the baptism of the Spirit! O for the penetration and 
wisdom of a Paul or a Wesley! 



CHAPTER IX. 

Appeal to the Church and Parents. 

1. The great defect, which is almost universal, in 
the teaching of home, the pulpit, and the Sunday- 
school is limitation within doctrinal and moral culture. 
Here ordinarily you expend all your energies. Here 
you sow all your seed broadcast. All wise and well. 
But when shall we look for the seed to spring up in 
conversion or a new heart? See you not that inborn 
enmity is secretly growing with fearful rapidity while 
you are delaying? See you not that procrastination 
is very early developed in children, and that by delay 
you encourage it in its most illusive forms ? Of course 
awakening grace must precede procrastination, and 
when awaked how often does the child indulge in the 
fa'tal reveries, "I am not old enough yet; I have time 
enough yet; people older than I am are converted;" 
and so on! I heard one of the leaders in our Israel, 
William Willis, Jr., Richmond, say that at six years of 
age he had these very feelings, and so put off conver- 
sion till he was ten, and then resolved to delay no 
longer, and was converted at a meeting of mine. I 
remember him well, and many, many others like him. 
The first awakening in childhood! Critical period! 
Seize that moment! Stop not short of immediate 
conversion! Let the children see that you expect, 
believe, and pray for more than moral culture — more 
than knowledge of the Bible, repetition of creeds, 
forms, prayers,, and sweet songs — even their imme- 
(70) 



Appeal to the Church and Parents. 71 

diate conversion. Otherwise, all may be a failure. 
And what a failure! When Buccess is just at band! 
Unsaved at borne and in the Sunday-school, I fear 
they are lost to home, the Church, and heaven for- 
ever. O how many who Leave home and the Bunday- 
sehool unconverted, glide away into the world, Insen- 
sibly losiug all the restraining influences of spirit mil 
instruction, and in rive or ten years are hopelessly in- 
volved in worldliness, unbelief, and skepticism! 

What an advantage for saving faith in childhood! 
Now, accompanied by the Spirit's demonstration, the 
parents' word is supreme authority, and faith in the 
child is unquestioning, full, and final. In after life 
every thing is to be logically proved, under all the 
disadvantages of innate and strengthened unbelief. 
The most critical period for conversion is between 
childhood and youth. You place it between youth and 
manhood. Begin in childhood. Work here with all 
your might. But as youth advances you relax, sus- 
pend, or abandon effort and leave youth to reason, the 
very time when you should be most vigorous; for on 
the other side of that line Satan and the world are 
waiting, and beckoning, and already the young heart 
feels the insidious charms. Stir up all your strength, 
and frustrate Satan and the world. You say that you 
are training your children to live in the world. Mr. 
Wesley inquires: " In which world do you mean — this 
or the next?" O see that you efface not the religious 
impressions of childhood by subsequent worldly 
training! Every home should be a " nursery for 
heaven." (Harris). Here they are in your hands, at 
your side, under your smiles, as if God had sent down 
young seraphim to be trained for heaven. Teach 



72 Early Conversion of Children. 



them to learn God's will before they can read it; to 
love and obey Christ as soon as they can love and 
obey you; to sing and shout hosannas to Christ as 
children once did; put them into the arms of Christ, 
that he may " bless them " with a new heart. Never, 
never forget that they are related to Christ as well as 
to you. 

2. Place them in the very center of the covenant 
and law of Christ. "For he established a testimony 
in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he com- 
manded our fathers, that they should make them 
known to their children: that the generation to come 
might know them, even the children which should be 
bom; who should arise and declare them to their 
children: that they might set their hope in God, and 
not forget the works of God, but keep his command- 
ments." Again says Moses: "These words, which I 
command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: and thou 
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." Fol- 
low the example of Abraham in parental obedience to 
God's will in the government and conversion of chil- 
dren: "For I know him, that he will command his 
children and his household after him, and they shall 
keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." 
Follow the example of Hannah in parental conform- 
ity to the constitution of grace in the consecration of 
Samuel, and of Eunice and Lois, the mother and 
grandmother of Timothy. Question not the meaning 
of Paul in reference to Timothy: "From a child thou 
hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to 
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus." " From a child." The word means 
a babe, babyhood, infancy expanding into childhood, 



Appeal to the Church and Parents, 7') 

before youth: this is the time to begin to teach. 
M Hast known." A little child then may have spiritual 
knowledge, may know the way of salvation. k ' Through 

faith which is in Christ Jesus." A little child then 
may have Eaith unto salvation. The Scriptures here 
referred to were those of the Old Testament, For the 
New Testament was not written in the childhood of 
Timothy; and now add the New, and tell me why a 
chi1<I may not become wise unto salvation through 
faith in Jesus? Remember the unalterable statute: 
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when 
he is old, he will not depart from it." And the un- 
changeable promise: " They that seek me early shall 
find me." And the unrepealable command: " Suffer 
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not; for of such is the kingdom of God." And the 
everlasting covenant: "For the promise is unto you, 
and to your children. 

Confine not, I repeat, these profound laws and prom- 
ises of God within the limits of doctrinal teaching 
and moral culture, though all that scope is included, 
but go to the heart of them all, and no one, child or 
adult, can know the heart of the law and gospel, or 
the heart of Christ or keep the law of Christ till he 
is regenerated. Believe, believe that the Spirit is 
present to fulfill the law and gospel " in demonstra- 
tion and power " in the earliest conversion of the 
children. 

3. O teach the children all the great doctrines of 
salvation! Teach them as soon as they are capable 
of understanding the glorious fact, and before they 
sin at all, that they are already justified. Fear 
not. It is so. Teach them, help them with all your 



7-i Early Conversion of Children. 

might, to pray and believe for regeneration before 
they are guilty of any, the least, actual sin. Teach 
them that being already justified by the death of 
Christ they have a right to regeneration by faith. 
Teach them that, being already justified, they have 
also a right by faith to entire sanctification, or a clean 
heart, full of love, joy, and peace. Teach them that 
they may " rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, 
in every thing give thanks." Teach them when 
they are justified, regenerated, and sanctified, that 
they forfeit justification, regeneration, and sanctifica- 
tion by actual sin. Teach them, when regenerated, to 
struggle against the remains of the carnal mind till 
the last root of bitterness is eradicated. Teach them 
what repentance and faith in the regenerate unto en- 
tire sanctification are, that they may not be discour- 
aged by the stirrings of bad temper or any other 
motions of remaining innate enmity. Teach them 
that the infirmities and imperfections of childhood 
are not sins. Parents, pastors, teachers, give them 
" the sincere milk of the word," and then " the strong 
meat " — pure spiritual instruction, experimental and 
practical, as they are able to bear, to the last degree. 
Blessed children are yours, if you are capable of 
teaching them all this, and are faithful in doing all 
this! Alas for them if you are not or delay! Teach 
them to cultivate all the Christian graces from their 
earliest incipiency in regeneration: humility, self-de- 
nial, meekness, patience, resignation, gentleness, for- 
giveness, long-suffering, goodness, temperance, broth- 
erly love, joy, peace, and faith. Teach them to 
observe all the means of grace. Teach them to do all 
good works. Lead them from the beginning to the 



Appeal to tht Church and Parents. 75 



end of the highway, or if you reach the end before 
they do, leave them in it fleet-footed, following hard 

after you, and they will soon overtake you in beaven. 

4. It is no justification, nor the least palliation, 
to say: "The difficulties are so great; 1 cannot under- 
take this great work; I shall fail." " Difficulties so 
great?" Granted. "Fail?" God forbid. "Cawnoinn- 
dertake? " You can. Remember they are your chil- 
dren. Remember their glorious rights and privileges. 
Remember the Holy Spirit will help you. Remember 
you have not a moment to lose. But I understand it. 
Your faith is weak, your knowledge of spiritual things 
is small, your comfort is faint, you have hardly 
strength enough to walk in the holy way yourself, 
hardly light enough to guide you. How can you help 
or guide them ? Cheer up ! 

"Difficulties are so great? Fail? Cannot under- 
take?" If you are not responsible for the salvation 
of your children, who is? and for what are you re- 
sponsible? You have overlooked the fundamental 
law, the reflex law of grace. No one can do good to 
others without receiving good himself. No one can 
pray for others without being blessed himself. You 
cannot pray for your children without having affec- 
tion for them and interest in their salvation both in- 
creased, and the more you love them the more you will 
labor for their salvation, and the more you labor for 
their salvation the more you will love them. This is 
the reciprocal law of relative duties. It is the lowest 
degree of the sense of responsibility to seek the sal- 
vation of your children only to avert your own eter- 
nal ruin. I do not know that there is any virtue at 
all in such a motive. No; but let your love for God 



76 Early Conversion of Children. 

and them be fused into a burning, quenchless, cease- 
less, resistless zeal for their immediate conversion, 
sanctification, and eternal salvation. Wonder not 
at Adam, whose sin entailed death on his helpless 
posterity, if you not only calmly see your children 
voluntarily and heedlessly alienate their innate justi- 
fication, with all its rights and privileges, but also 
pervert all your authority and influence to beguile 
them from the gracious kingdom in which they were 
born and in which Christ says they are. You are 
doing a fatal work as successfully as Satan did. You 
are Adam and Eve over again to your children. 

5. You are under obligation to God in many things, 
parents, but chiefly for the training and salvation of 
your children. Bring them to Jesus. Jewish moth- 
ers brought their envenomed children in their arms 
to look on the brazen serpent. Jesus, the substance 
of that symbol, blessed little children. You ask: " Was 
that a conversion? " I do not know. Doubtless it was 
a blessing which they had not before — his blessing — a 
special blessing. It is said Polycarp was one of those 
little children Christ blessed. "A flower in the bud 
is no mean offering." You say: " I have never gone 
myself." Well, that is the way to go yourself, and 
for the whole family to be reconciled at once. In this 
day, if any of your children are not converted, Chris- 
tian parents, are you not responsible for it? The 
children are ready. And when converted, take a ten- 
derer care of them than ever, for in a double sense 
now they are lambs: your own, and Christ's. Follow 
the chief Shepherd nearer, that neither you nor they 
may stray off. 

6. The children, the children ! O parents, who shall 



Appeal to the Church and Parents. 77 

guide them one Btep beyond their cradles and your 

door, it* you dn not? Who shall feed them, clothe 
them, protect them, educate them, if you do n<>t ? And 
how much you Love them! You Uve Eor them, and 

would die for them. You may deny (tod, but cannot 
disown them. If you should extinguish parental af- 
fection, you would be " worse than an infidel." What 
would home, this world, be to you without them? Js 
it not chiefly for them that you are concerned about 
this life? And who calls your name as they do? 
Who greets you as they do? Who so happy in your 
presence as they are? Who loves you as they do? 
Who confides in you as they do? Who would weep 
at your death or remember you in the grave as they 
would? Who in all heaven would welcome you there 
as they would? Who would witness your condemna- 
tion and banishment at the judgment as they would, 
should you be separated from them then? What but 
the presence of God could make heaven happier to 
you than their presence? What being but God would 
they rather have at their side to all eternity in heaven 
than you? They wall be content in heaven without 
you? But I know not how that will be. Faith, not 
nature, accepts the reasonings. Go, innocent, inalien- 
able ones, and let God solve the problem of resigna- 
tion to eternal separations. I bury my face in my 
hands, and weep till the problem is solved. 

7. In a word, a system of training, at home or in 
the Sunday-school, that leads not to the earliest con- 
version is defective in the most vital part, and should 
be improved. If it leads to this blessed end, execute 
it at once. It is undeniable that any system of train- 
ing of children that does not exhaust parental affection, 



78 Early Conversion of Children. 

Christian love, and the meaning of the Scriptures in 
reference to their rights and privileges, must be de- 
fective; and such is every system, whatever its other 
excellences, that does not include their earliest re- 
generation. We see not to the bottom and top of the 
commands, promises, and precepts in relation to chil- 
dren till we embrace and fulfill the doctrine of their 
conversion. Here we are content. Here we begin, 
and henceforth proceed. 

A mother's influence! "Several young men who 
were associated in preparing for the Christian minis- 
try felt interested in ascertaining w^hat proportion of 
their number had pious mothers. They were greatly 
surprised and delighted in finding that out of hundred 
and twenty students more than one hundred had been 
blessed by a pious mother's prayers and directed by a 
mother's counsels to the Saviour." (Quoted by Kitto.) 
Solomon enshrines his mother in the inspirations of 
wisdom: "I was my father's son, tender and only 
beloved in the sight of my mother." (Prov. iv. 3.) 
And he concludes his Proverbs with the instructions 
from his mother: " The words of King Lemuel, the 
prophecy that his mother taught him." And I 
shout: Blessed be God forever for a pious mother! 



CHAPTER X. 
A New Eba. 

1. Onward borne by irresistible forces on all sides, 
man is brought tp a period in the progress of the gos- 
pel where inaction is reaction and compromise is ruin. 
We have no time or strength now but for heroic res- 
olution and ardor to advance God's work on every 
hand. As the angel at the edge of the opened sea 
shouted to Moses, God commands the Church to-day, 
Go forward in the conversion of the children f What 
else can man do? Who can stem or reverse these un- 
controllable forces? The old governments in Churcli 
and State throughout the world are breaking up. 
They have nearly lived out their day. The devotion 
of the people to them is declining. Take it for 
granted that all these changes indicate that God is 
preparing to introduce a new era, by beginning now 
at the last foundation in humanity. Romanism, Mo- 
hammedanism, Indiasm, and Heathenism are waning 
fast. The accumulating evidences of the rapid de- 
cline of ancient and modern governments everywhere 
might fill a separate volume. 

2. I have hardly any hope, I repeat again, of the 
conversion of the old and vanishing generation. It 
will soon be past and buried and out of the way with 
its errors, corruptions, and vices. Awakening grace 
is spreading through the Sunday-schools. The pro- 
found and philosophic testimony of human experience 
is that the only solid and permanent foundation of 

(79) 



SO Early Conversion of Children. 

real progress is laid in childhood. When new ideas 
of improvement and reformation are discussed by- 
great minds too late to arrest and control a corrupt 
generation, forthwith wisdom and philanthropy in- 
stinctively turn to the young for ultimate triumph, 
and remedial measures, adapted to the young, are 
adopted to secure the desired results. When was it 
that the wisdom and experience of age did not sigh 
and say: " The hope of the country and the Church is 
in the children?" This is the last retreat of hope. 
In this way only can the errors of the past be cor- 
rected and the evils of the present removed. We oft- 
en wish we could live to participate in the labors and 
share in the triumphs of the next generation. Such, 
beyond all question, is the nature and import of the 
Sunday-school organization in our day. We hear 
animating voices of the future, unheard till now, float- 
ing amid the ruins and desolation of the present, pre- 
dicting and promising the reorganization of man on 
an immovable foundation, as if God w T ere speaking 
again as he did in innocent ancient Eden. Chaos is 
stirring again under the hovering Spirit, and we hear 
the creative word as angels heard it in the first crea- 
tion : " Let us make man in our image, after our like- 
ness," out of the dust again. The angels saw man 
created full grown in the image of God; we see that 
image revived and restored in regenerated childhood. 
God breathed his image perfect in Adam as the basis 
of its own reproduction through all time, but sin oblit- 
erated it. God breathes his image now immediately 
from himself in every case of regenerated childhood. 
Why may not that image be imparted by the same di- 
vine breath in believing childhood? Who dare say it 



A New Era. Hi 



cannot be? To me Chrisl is more glorious, standing in 
Judea, infolding in bis arms little children and press- 
ing them to bis bosom and patting bis hands on I beir 
heads and savin--, kk ()i* such is the kingdom of heav- 
en," than he was standing in paradise and creating 
Adam iii original perfection amid the admiring angels 
and in sighl and reach of the trees of life and death. 
If it can be assumed (and it can be had Adam been 
steadfast), Adamic perfection would have been the 
basis of the reproduction of the perfect image of God 
in childhood to the end of time; for God said: " Be 
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Now 
as that basis was destroyed, why may not the Son of 
God, who is the second Adam, by the holy Spirit, in 
the very infancy of mind, and from its earliest moral 
activity and accountability, restore the image of God 
to the whole posterity of Adam and fill the earth with 
a holy race? If a holy posterity might have sprung 
from incorrupt Adam, why may not a corrupt poster- 
ity be changed by grace through faith in the second 
Adam? Why may not the God of redemption do as 
much for children as the God of creation would have 
done for them? Doubtless all children dying in in- 
fancy are regenerated and made as holy by the Spirit 
as they would have been had they been born in holy 
Eden. Why, I mean, with the earliest repentance 
and faith, may not the Spirit regenerate and lead them 
forth from the temple of grace, to convert earth itself 
into Eden, as they would have issued from paradise 
had not Adam fallen? In the latter case the Adamic 
law would have been the guide of man; in the former 
case the Bible will be his standard. 

3. This is not an illusion. Dormant is hereditary 
G 



82 Early Conversion of Children. 



moral evil in tlie child, which, uncontrolled and un- 

extirpated, will eventuate in actual sins, vices, and 
endless evil. So dormant is moral good in initial 
grace in the child, which, controlled and guided, will 
eventuate in graces, actions, and eternal good. Child- 
hood is the period in which to repress and so prevent 
forever the development and consummation of the 
former. Why may not initial dormant moral evil, or 
quiescent enmity against God, be exterminated in the 
germ in childhood or be weakened as initial life is 
strengthened, and this advantage of initial life be con- 
tinued till moral evil is utterly extirpated in regen- 
eration and entire sanctification? If initial life is 
weakened as initial evil strengthens (and it is), then 
the reverse is true — that is, the latter is weakened as 
the former is strengthened. Beyond the line of ac- 
countability an eternity of good or evil is waiting, as 
yet undeveloped. Which is easier, to destroy moral 
evil in its earliest immaturity or in its maturity? If 
moral evil is the greatest evil and moral good is the 
greatest good in the universe, and the former is great- 
er than the latter, then man is without help or hope. 
But that these antagonistic principles are equal in 
childhood cannot be denied or disproved. Responsi- 
ble will in childhood, or later in life, only can turn 
the dreadful scales. I take my stand in childhood. 
Here the Bible takes its stand, as we have seen. 

4. Let man, therefore, turn to the Bible for the so- 
lution of the problem of human governments and find 
it in the conversion and training of children by the 
Church, according to the constitution and statutes of 
redemption by Jesus Christ, the second Adam. This 
profound problem, that has baffled all ages, is solved 



A New Era. 



in the following legislation of Omniscience, for th< k 
world's regeneration: "Hear, Israel: the Lord our 
God is one Lord: And thou shall love the Lord thy 
God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy might. And these words, which J com- 
mand thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou 
shah loach them diligently unto thy children^ and shalt 
talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou Host 
down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind 
them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as 
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write 
them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." 
(Dent. vi. 4-9.) 

" Gather the people together, men, and women, and 
children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, 
that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear 
the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words 
of this law: and that their children, which have not 
known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord 
your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go 
over Jordan to possess it." (Deut. xxxi. 12, 13.) 

"Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your 
ears.to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth 
in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: which 
we have heard and known, and our fathers have told 
us. We will not hide them from their children, show- 
ing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, 
and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath 
done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and 
appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our 
fathers, that they should make them known to their 
children: that the generation to come might know 



84 Early Conversion of Children. 

them, even ///( ; children which should be born; who 
should arise and declare them to their children: that 
they might set their hope in God, and not forget the 
works of God, but keep his commandments: and 
might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebel- 
lious generation; a generation that set not their heart 
aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." 
(Ps. lxxviii. 1, 8.) 

" Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall 
he make to understand doctrine? them that are 
weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon pre- 
cept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and 
there a little." (Isa. xxviii. 9, 10. ) The time of wean- 
ing among the Hebrews was at three years old, and 
this prophecy refers to and was fulfilled, as we have 
seen, in gospel times, and extends to the end of time. 

" This shall be the covenant that I will make with 
the house of Israel; After those days, saith the 
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and 
they shall be my people. And they shall teach no 
more every man his neighbor, and every man his 
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know 
me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, 
saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and 
I will remember their sin no more." ( Jer. xxxi. 33, 
34.) 

" Train up a child in the way he should go: and 
when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Pro v. 
xxii. 6.) 

" My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart 
keep my commandments." "Let not mercy and truth 



A M < Era, 

ate thee: bind them about thy neck; write them 
upon the table of thine heart" I Prov. Lii 1, •>. I 

"But Jesus Baid, Buffer 1 1 1 1 1 « - children, and forbid 
them not, to come unto me; forof such is the kingdom 
of heaven." (Matt, xix. 14) 

"For the promise is unto you, and to your children. 91 
(Ads ii. 39.) 

The whole code of the Bible on this subject is com- 
pressed in: "Ye fathers, . . . bring them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph. vi. i.) 
That is, from the earliest moment children are sus- 
ceptible of religious teaching they are to be taught; 
and from that moment, consequently, they are sus- 
ceptible of conversion. This is the date of saving 
grace in childhood, and the most susceptible because 
earliest, and not the most unfavorable because earliest. 

5. Let the Church, therefore, expend its might on 
the earliest instruction and conversion of the children. 
How often do we hear experienced Christians say that 
they fear little more can be done than has been done f< >r 
the conversion of a gospel-hardened age! Yv T ho has 
not well-nigh given over multitudes who throng our 
churches and our streets, on whom the labors of the 
whole Church have been so long expended in vain? 
From my inmost soul I fear, and the older I get the 
more I fear, that comparatively few beyond the period 
of youth will ever be converted. It is next to impos- 
sible to rouse from sleep the soul confirmed in the 
spirit, habits, manners, customs, fashions, pursuits, 
and cares of the world. There they sit in the church 
— you cannot reach them. There they go — you can- 
not stop them. They have resisted the strongest 
stirrings of the Spirit, the most powerful reasonings, 



8G Early Conversion of Children. 

appeals, expostulations, and warnings of the pulpit, 
and all prayers and tears and revivals and labors for 
their conversion have been in vain. 

What remains for them but a fruitless repetition 
of the old means of grace? There is a deep law in 
all this. We seem to hear the old doom: "Surely 
none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from 
twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which 
I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; 
because they have not wholly followed me . . . 
save Caleb . . . and Joshua. . . . And the Lord's 
anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them 
wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the gen- 
eration, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was 
consumed." (Num. xxxii. 11-13.) 

What then? We instinctively turn to the children. 
Here is an open, boundless, fertile field. All else is 
well-nigh a bleak, barren world. What? give up the 
old generation? We cannot help it. " Twenty years 
old and upward!" In " forty years" and, with few 
exceptions, all the hardened will be dead. We can- 
not help it now. We turn to the children. Up, up! 
Bring a whole new generation to Jesus, as if we were 
the first generation and the children around us were 
the seeoneL Train them as if you were in paradise. 
Ought you not to train them for heaven? Occupy 
the ground before Satan is intrenched and immova- 
ble. What mean you by this long neglect of the 
lambs, scattered and rambling in the wilderness? 
Why mourn another hour the delay of universal and 
perpetual revival? You have work enough to do close 
at hand in the conversion of the children. I fear you 
are doomed to failure in the conversion of a decaying, 



A N( ii Era. 87 



Belf-doomed generation* Will yon Eail also in the 
BalvatioD of a young generation, whose everlasi 
fortunes yon immediately control? 

6. Ami as ;m incentive which should animate the 
Church to the last degree, I will add: Let the chil- 
dren be converted, and the waning hope of the conver- 
sion of tin 4 old, it may be, will be rekindled. All else 
has failed. The parental tie is the Last fiber thai re- 
mains. That cannot be severed as Long as Life Lasts, 
especially in the mother. Put the lambs in the bosom 
of Christ, and the old sheep will be apt to follow. I f 
parents cannot be saved through the conversion of 
their children, when every thing else has failed, then 
I must give them up. Let us swing the whole army 
of Christ around on this pivot, the immediate conver- 
sion of children, and then return re-enforced and sweep 
the whole field. In the name of Christ, and by the 
power of the Spirit, do it, and begin the millennium. 

7. Never has the Church displayed such zeal in the 
religious education of the children as it does now. 
All other measures for the final triumph of the gos- 
pel are insignificant compared with the magnitude and 
promise of this uprising of the Church. Education 
with its refinement,' philosophy with its benefits, sci- 
ence with its achievements, invention with its facili- 
ties, commerce with its blessings, wealth with its 
advantages, war with its revolutions, and. the .Church 
with its triumphs, after centuries of struggle and trial 
to govern the world, have hardly gone beyond the 
frontiers of civilization. Is it not a divine inspiration 
that now arouses Christendom to lay the foundation 
of Christ's universal dominion in childhood? Is not 
the Sunday-school the pillar of cloud in which God 



88 Early Conversion of Children. 

is visibly moving through the world? See you not 
the dense darkness of ages receding before it? With 
what exultation must angels, prophets, and apostles 
look from their thrones on this new measure for man's 
redemption! Who does not feel a pentecostal ardor 
kindling as he surveys the advancing glory? The 
millennium is laid and perpetuated in regenerated 
childhood. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Facts. 

That the great majority in tlio Church and minis- 
try of the present clay were converted in childhood 
and youth none will question. Listen to the relation 
of experience in any religious meeting, and you rarely 
hear one who does not date his conversion in child- 
hood or youth. If, then, you take away those con- 
verted in childhood and youth, what have you left? 
Hardly any Church. It is easy to see that conversion 
in childhood has an essential bearing on the very ex- 
istence of the Church. 

I shall devote a chapter to the argument of facts in 
proof of conversion in childhood, and I know none as 
good as those related by Wesley in his journal, except 
those recorded in the Bible. Wesley's are wonderful. 
Hear him, as I condense many of the cases: 

1. "John Woolley was a bad boy — turned out of 
school, ran away from home, heard Mr. Wesley preach, 
returned home, wrestled with God, was converted, 
and never ran away any more. In his illness, of which 
he died, when asked by his mother if he wanted any 
thing, he said: ' Nothing but Christ; and I am as sure 
of him as if I had him already.' He often said: 'O 
mother, if all the world believed in Christ, what a 
happy world would it be! And they may; for Christ 
died for every soul of man: I was the worst of sinner?, 
and he died for me. O thou that callest the worst of 
sinners, call me! O it is a free gift! I am sure I 

(89) 



90 Early Conversion of Children. 



have done nothing to deserve it! ' To his Bister he 
said: 'I shall die; but do not cry for me. Consider 

what a joyful thing it is to have a brother in heaven. 
I am not a man; I am but a boy. But is it not in the 
Bible, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings 
hast thou ordained strength?" I know where I am 
going: I would not be without this knowledge for a 
thousand worlds; for though I am not in heaven yet, 
I am as sure of it as if I was.' On Wednesday night, 
wrestling with God in prayer, he threw open his arms 
and cried: 'Come, come, Lord Jesus! I am thine. 
Amen and amen. God answers me in my heart, "Be 
of.good cheer, thou hast overcome the ivorld;" ' and imme- 
diately was filled with love and joy unspeakable. On 
Thursday morning his mother asked him how he did. 
He said: 'I have had much struggling to-night, but 
my Saviour is so loving to me I do not mind it; it is no 
more than nothing to me.' When asked again, ' How 
do you find yourself now?' he said: 'In great pain, 
but full of love. But pain is nothing to me: I did 
sing praises to the Lord in my greatest pain; and I 
could not help it.' When asked if he was willing to 
die, he replied: 'O yes, with all my heart; I long to 
be out of this wicked world.' On Friday he begged 
to see Mr. Wesley, and when Mr. Wesley came and 
asked him what he should pray for, he said, 'That 
God would give me a clean heart, and renew a right 
spirit within me; ' and when prayer was ended he was 
much enlivened, and said: ( I thought I should have 
died to-day; but I must not be in this haste; I am con- 
tent to stay. I will tarry the Lord's pleasure.' On 
Saturday he said: ' I have no will; my will is resigned 
to the will of Grod. But I shall die; mother, be not 



Facts. 91 

troubled; 1 shall go away Like a Lamb.' And so at 
last, on the next Thursday morning, he kissed his lit- 
tle brother and Bister, and thru .said to his mother: 
1 Now Let me kiss you, 1 which he did, and immediately 
tell asleep. He was Borne months above thirteen 
years." ("Wesley's Works," Vol. III., pp. 243, 
245.) 

2. "Sunday, September 10, 1744, I buried one who 
had finished her course, going to God in the full as- 
surance of faith, when she was little more than four 
years old. In her last sickness (having been deeply 
serious in her behavior for several months before ) f 
she spent all the intervals of her convulsions in speak- 
ing of, or to, God. And when she perceived her 
strength to be near exhausted, she desired all the 
family to come near, and prayed for them all, one by 
one; then for her ministers, for the Church, and for 
all the world. A short time afterward, recovering, she 
lifted up her eyes, and said, ' Thy kingdom come,' and 
died." {Ibid., p. 320.) 

3. " Thursday, March 20, 1746. I was glad of having 
an opportunity of talking with a child I had heard of. 
She was convinced of sin some weeks before by the 
words of her elder brother (about eight years of age) 
dying as a hundred years old, in the full triumph of 
faith. I asked her abruptly : ' Do you love God ? ' She 
said: 'Yes, I do love him with all my heart.' I said: 
' Why do you love him?' She answered: 'Because 
he has saved me.' I asked: 'How has he saved you? ' 
She replied: i He has taken away my sins.' I said: 
'How do you know that?' She answered: 'He told 
rae himself on Saturday, " Thy sins areforgiven tin < ; " 
and I believe him; and I pray to him without a book. 



92 Early Conversion of Children. 

I was afraid to die; but now I am not afraid to die, 
for if I die I shall go to him.' " {Ibid., p. 366.) 

4. " Saturday, June 28, 1746. I inquired more par- 
ticularly of Mrs. Nowens concerning lier little son. 
She said he appeared to have a continual fear of God 
and an awful sense of his presence; that he frequent- 
ly went to prayers by himself and prayed for his 
father and many others by name; that he had an 
exceeding great tenderness of conscience, being sen- 
sible to the least sin, and crying and refusing to be 
comforted when he thought he had in any thing dis- 
pleased God; that a few days since he broke out into 
prayer aloud, and then said: ' Mamma, I shall go to 
heaven soon, and be with the little angels. And you 
will go there too, and my papa; but you will not go so 
soon.' The day before, he went to a little girl in the 
house, and said: ' Mary, you and I must go to prayers. 
Don't mind your doll; kneel down now; I must go to 
prayers: God bids me.'" Mr. "Wesley adds: "When 
the Holy Ghost teaches, is there any delay, in learn- 
ing? This child was then just three years old. A 
year or two after he died in peace." (Ibid., p. 370.) 

5. " Thursday, April 26, 1750. I examined the class 
of children, many of whom are rejoicing in God." 
(Ibid., p. 482.) 

6. " Tuesday, April 8, 1755. Through much rain, 
hail, and wind we got to Mr. B's about five in the aft- 
ernoon. His favorite daughter died some hours be- 
fore we came: such a child as is scarce heard of in a 
century. All the family informed nTe of many re- 
markable instances, which else would have seemed in- 
credible. She spoke exceeding plain, yet very sel- 
dom, and then only a few words. She was scarce ever 



Facts. 93 

Been to Laugh or heard to utter a lighl or trifling word. 
She could no\ bear any that did uor any one who be- 
haved in a lighl or anserious manner. If her broth- 
ers or Bisters spoke angrily to each other, or behaved 
triflingly, she either sharply reproved (when thai 
Beemed needful) or tenderly entreated them to give 
over. If she had spoken too sharply to any, she would 
humble herself to them, and not rest till they had 
forgiven her. After her health declined, she was par- 
ticularly pleased with hearing that hymn sung, 'Abba, 
Father,' and would be frequently singing that line 

herself: 

Abba, Father, hear my cry ! 

Without any struggle, she fell asleep, having lived 
two years and six months." {Ibid., p. 576.) 

7. " Sunday, August 30, 1858. I began meeting the 
children in the afternoon, though with little hopes of 
doing them good. But I had not spoken long on our 
natural state before many of them were in tears, and 
five or six so affected that they could not refrain from 
crying aloud to God. "When I began to pray, their 
cries increased so that my voice was soon lost. I have 
seen no such work among children for eighteen or 
nineteen years." {Ibid., Vol. IV., p. 5. ) What do you 
think of that? Mr. Wesley praying unheard among 
the cries of penitent children ! 

8. Mr. Wesley quotes from the journal of a friend: 
"And now did I see such a sight as I do not expect 
again on this side of eternity. The faces of the three 
justified children did really shine; and such a beauty, 
such a look of extreme happiness, at the same time of 
divine love and simplicity, did I ever see in human 
faces till now. The newly justified eagerly embraced 



( ,)1 Earlj Conversion of Children. 

one another, weeping on each other's necks for joy." 
{Ibid., Vol. IV., p. 27.) 

9. " Wednesday, August 4, 1762. I asked Hannah 
Blakely, aged eleven: ' What do you want now? ' She 
answered with amazing energy, the tears running 
down her cheeks: ' Nothing in this world, nothing but 
more of my Jesus.' How often 'out of the mouths of 
babes and sucklings' dost thou 'perfect praise!' 
(Ibid.,?. 135.) 

10. He gives the following remarkable account of a 
child: "John B., about ten years old, was some time 
since taken ill. He often asked how it was to die. 
His sister told him: 'Some children know God; and 
and then they are not afraid to die.' ' What,' said he, 
'children as little as me? ' Your sister Patty did; and 
she was less than you.' At which he seemed to be 
much affected. Soon after, he said: 'We shall soon 
be with angels and archangels in heaven. What sig- 
nifies this wicked w T orld? Who would want to live 
here that might live with Christ? ' His sister asked: 
'Do you love God?' He answered: 'Yes, that I do.' 
She asked: 'And do you think God loves you?' He 
replied: 'Yes, I know lie does.' The next evening 
she said: 'How are you, Jacky, w T hen you are so hap- 
py ? ' He said, stroking his breast down with his 
hand: 'Why, like as if God was in me. O my sister^ 
what a happy thing it was I came to Dudley! I am 
quite happy when I am saying my prayers; and when 
I think on God, I can almost see into heaven.' Tues- 
day night last she asked: 'Are you afraid to die?' 
He said: 'I have seen the time when I was; but now 
I am not a bit afraid of death or hell or judgment; 
for Christ is mine. I know Christ is my own. He 



Fads. 96 

Bays; " What would yon bave? " I would gel i<> I 
eu; I would gel to heaven as boob as I can. And as 
well as 1 Love you all, when I once gel to heaven, L 
would not come to you again Eor ten thousand worlds. 
If clod would Let me do as the angels do, I would come 
and watch over you. 1 will, it God will Let me; and 
when you arc ready, I will come and fetch you to 
heaven; yea, it Clod would let me, I would ily all over 
the world to i'etcli souls to heaven.' His health since 
that time has been in some measure recovered, but 
he continues in the same spirit." (Ibid., p. 169.) 

11. "About this time (May, 17G8) a remarkable 
work of God broke out among the children at Kings- 
wood School," which is thus described: " God broke 
in among our boys in a surprising manner — even like 
a mighty rushing wind, which made them cry aloud 
for mercy: now about twenty in the utmost distress; 
the spirit of prayer runs through the whole school; 
but few who withstand the work; the prayers of those 
who believe in Christ seem to carry all before them ; 
the number added to the Society since the Conference 
is a hundred and thirty. The house rings with praise 
and prayer, and the whole behavior of the children 
strongly speaks for God. The whole exceeds all that 
language can paint." Later, another writes: "The 
work still goes on at King^swood; and, what is most 
remarkable, I do not know of one backslider in the 
place. The outpouring of the Spirit on the children 
has been exceeding great — not one among them who 
is not affected more or less — and some of them have 
no more doubt of the favor of God than of their own 
existence." {Ibid., pp. 27G, 277.) 

12. "I now procured (March 21, 1770) an ac- 



96 Early Conversion of Children. 



count of two remarkable children, which I thought 
ought not to be buried in oblivion: About three 
weeks before Christmas, 1768, William Cooper, then 
nine years old, was convinced of sin, and would fre- 
quently say he should go hell and the devil would get 
him. Sometimes he cried out: <I hate him,' and 
when asked, < Whom? ' he answered, with great vehe- 
mence, 'God.' But in a fortnight his mouth was 
filled with praise, declaring to all what God had done 
for his soul. A few days after, his sister Lucy, eleven 
years old, was convinced and converted, and they 
mightily rejoiced together in their Saviour, at the same 
time they were both heavily afflicted in their bodies. 
On December 30, one of their sisters coming to see 
them, William told her he had been very ill. 'But,' 
said he, ' I do not mean in my body, but in my soul: 
I felt my sins so heavy that I thought I should go to 
hell; nay, for a week I thought myself just in the 
flames of hell. The sins that troubled me most were 
telling lies and quarreling with my sister. I saw, if 
God did not forgive me, I was lost; and I knew quar- 
reling was as great a sin in Lucy as it was in me; and 
if she did not get a pardon, and feel the love of Jesus, 
she could not go to heaven.' 

" Lucy said : ' When I heard Mr. A. describe two sorts 
of people, one sort washed in the blood of Christ and 
the other not, I found I was not; and therefore if I 
died so, must go to hell.' Being asked what sin lay 
most on her conscience, she replied: ' Taking his 
name in vain, by repeating my prayer when I did not 
think of God.' When William was confessing that he 
loved money, she said: 'And so did I, and was angry 
if I had not as much as he. I loved money more 



Facta. ( .>7 

than God, and he might justly bave sent me to bell 
for it' 
' k William, being asked how he did, replied: 'Happy 

in Jesus; Jesus is sweet to my soul.' ' I )<> you rfl008e 

to live or die? 1 Heanswered: 'Neither. J hope, if 

J live, 1 shall praise God; and if I die J am sure L 
shall go to him; for he has forgiven my sins and given 

me his love.' One asked Lucy how long she had been 
in the triumph of faith. She answered: 'Only this 
week: before I had much to do with Satan; but now 
Jesus has conquered him for me.' Feeling great pain 
in her body, she said: ' I want more of these pains, 
more of these pains, to bring me nearer to Jesus.' 
One speaking of knowing the voice of Christ, she said: 
* The voice of Christ is a strange voice to them who 
do not know their sins are forgiven; but I know it, 
for he has pardoned all my sins, and given me his 
love; and what a mercy that such a hell-deserving 
wretch as me, as me, should be made to taste of his 
love!' 

" William had frequent spasms. "When he found one 
coming on, with a smile he laid down his head, saying: 
c O sweet love! O sweet Jesus!' And as soon as he 
came to himself, being asked how he did, he would 
reply: 'I am happy in the love of Christ.' When a 
gentleman said: ' My dear, you could praise God more 
if it was not for these ugly fits,' he replied: ' Sir, they 
are not ugly; for my clear Jesus sent them, and he has 
given me patience to bear them, and he bore more for 
my sins.' One night a gentleman and his wife came 
to see them, and the lady, looking on Lucy, said: 'She 
looks as if nothing were the matter with her; she is so 
pleasant with her eyes.' She replied: ' I have enough 
7 



98 Early Conversion of Children* 

to make me look so, for I am full of the love of God.' 
AYhile she spoke, her eyes sparkled exceedingly, and 
tears flowed down her cheeks. At this Willie smiled, 
but could not speak; having been speechless more than 
an hour, as if just going into eternity. But reviving 
a little, as soon as he could speak, he desired to be 
held up in the bed, and looking at the gentleman who 
asked him how he did, he answered; 'I am happy in 
Christ, and I hope you are.' He said: 'I hope I can 
say I am.' Willie replied: 'Has Christ pardoned 
your sins?' He said: 'I hope he has.' 'Sir,' said 
Willie, ' hope will not do; for I had this hope, and yet 
if I had died then, I should surely have gone to hell. 
But he has forgiven me all my sins and given me a 
taste of his love. If you have this love, you will know 
it, and be sure of it; but you cannot know it without 
the power of God. You may read as many books 
about Christ as you please [he w r as a great reader]; 
but if you read all your life, this will only be in your 
head, and that head will perish; so that, if you have 
not the love of God in your heart, you will go to hell. 
But I hope you will not: I will pray to God for you, 
that he may give you his love.' 

" Many who heard what great things God had done 
for them said: ' It will not be so with you always. If 
you should live to come into the world again, he would 
leave you in the dark.' They answered: 'We do not 
think so, for our Jesus has promised us that he will 
never leave us.' There were few came to see them, 
when either of them was able to speak, but they in- 
quired into the state of their souls; and, without fear, 
told them the danger of dying without an assurance 
of the love of Christ. One coming to see them was 



Fads, \)[) 

talked to very closely by Willie, till she could l». ar no 
more. She turned to Lucy and said: * You were al- 
ways good children, and never told stories.' 'Yes, 
madam/ said Lucy, k l>ut I did, when I was afraid of 

being beat; and when 1 said my prayers; for 1 did not 

think of God; and I called him my Father, when I 
whs a little child of wrath; and as to praying, I could 

not pray till it pleased him by his Spirit to show me 
my sins. And he showed me that we might say as 
many prayers as we would, and go to church or meet- 
ing; yet all this, if we had not Christ for our founda- 
tion, would not do.' 

"When asked if they were not afraid to die, they al- 
ways answered: ' No; for what can death do? He can 
only lay his cold hand on our bodies.' One told Lucy : 
* Now you may live as you please, since you are sure 
of going to heaven.' 'No, I would not sin against my 
dear Saviour if you would give me this room full of 
gold.' On Monday before Willie died, he repeated 
that hymn with the most triumphant joy: 

Come, let us join our cheerful songs 
With angels round the throne. 

Afterward he repeated the Lord's Prayer. The last 
words he spoke intelligibly were: 'How pleasant it 
is to be with Christ forever and ever, forever and 
ever! Amen! Amen! Amen!' While he lay speech- 
less, there came into the room some one he feared 
knew not God. He seemed much affected, wept, and 
moaned much, waved his hand, and put it on his sis- 
ter's mouth, intimating, as she supposed, that she 
should speak to them. On Wednesday evening, Feb- 
ruary 1, his happy spirit returned to God. She died 
soon after." {Ibid., pp. 823, 325. ) 



100 Early Conversion of Children. 

13. Mr. Wesley gives examples of perfect lovo 
among children. " Wednesday, June 3, 1772, I de- 
sired to speak with those who believed God had saved 
them from inward sin, among them his children, Mar- 
garet Spenser, aged fourteen, and Sally Blackburn, a 
year younger. But what a contrast was there between 
them ! Sally was all calmness : her look, her speech, 
her whole carriage were as sedate as if she had lived 
threescore years. On the contrary, Margaret was all 
fire: her eye sparkled, her very features spoke, her 
whole face was all alive, and she looked as if she were 
ready to take wing for heaven! Lord, let neither of 
these live to dishonor thee! ,, (Ibid., p. 375.) 

14. Referring to a "great work of God," Mr. Wes- 
ley says, " Forty-three of these are children, thirty of 
whom are rejoicing in the love of God," and the fol- 
lowing are mentioned: " Phebe, nine years and a half 
old, a child of uncommon understanding; Hannah, 
ten years old, full of faith and love; Aaron, not eleven 
years old, but wise and staid as a man; Sarah Smith, 
eight years and a half old, but as serious as a woman of 
fifty; Sarah Morris, fourteen years of age, is as a moth- 
er among them, always serious, always watching over 
the rest, and building them up in love." (Ibid., p. 378. ) 

15. "Monday, September 6, 1773. After Mr. Mar- 
tin preached at Pensford, he met the children there. 
Presently the spirit of contrition fell upon them, and 
then the spirit of grace and supplication, till the 
greater part of them were crying together for mercy, 
with a loud and bitter cry. February 10 I went 
over to Kingswood. Hearing in the evening that the 
children were got to prayer by themselves in the 
school, I went down; but not being willing to disturb 



1 1 

thrni, stood by the window. Two or three b 
in first; thru more and more, till above thirty w 
gathered together. Such a sight I never saw before 
nor since. Three or four stood and Btared, as if af- 
frighted. The rest were all on their knees, pouring 
out their souls beforo Cod, in a manner not easily 

tube described. Sometimes one, sometimes more, 
prayed aloud; sometimes a cry went up from them all; 

till five or six of them, who were in doubt before, saw 
the clear light of God's countenance. I suppose such 
a visitation of children has not been known in En- 
gland these hundred years." (Ibid, pp. 402, 403.) 
And he adds a little farther: " Spent a little time with 
the lovely children. Those of them who were lately 
affected did not appear to have lost anything of what 
they had received; and some of them were clearly 
gaining ground and advancing in the faith that works 
by love." 

16. "The evening being fair and mild, I preached 
in the new square. It was a fruitful season. 

Soft fell the word as flew the air, 
even 'as the rain into a fleece of wool.' Many such 
seasons we have had lately: almost every day one and 
another has found peace, particularly young persons 
and children. Shall not they be a blessing in the 
rising generation?" (Ibid., p. 423.) 

17. "The love-feast which followed (at Ep worth) 
exceeded all. I never knew such a one here before. 
As soon as one had done speaking, another began. 
Several of them were children, but they spoke with 
the wisdom of the aged, though with the fire of youth. 
So out of the mouths of babes and sucklings did God 
perfect praise." (Ibid., p. 5G0.) 



102 Early Conversion of Children. 

18. " Tuesday, June 8, 178-1. I came to Stockton- 
upon-Tees. Here I found an uncommon work among 
the children. Many of them, from six to fourteen, 
were under serious impressions and earnestly desir- 
ous to save their souls. There were upward of sixty 
who constantly came to be examined, and appeared to 
be greatly awakened. I preached at noon. As soon 
as I came down from the desk I was inclosed by a 
body of children, one of whom, and another, sunk 
down upon their knees, until they were all kneeling; 
so I kneeled down myself and began praying for them. 
Abundance of people ran back into the house. The 
fire kindled and ran from heart to heart till few, if 
any, were unaffected. Is not this a new thing in the 
earth? God begins his work in children. Thus it 
has been also in Cornwall, Manchester, and Epworth. 
Thus the flame spreads to those of riper years; till at 
length they all know him, and praise him from the 
least unto the greatest." (Ibid., -p. 596). So Wesley, 
now near the close of his life, was preaching to a new 
generation: the old were well-nigh gospel-hardened. 
So in this day. 

19. "April, 1785. The number of children that are 
clearly converted to God is particularly remarkable. 
Thirteen or fourteen little maidens, in one class, are 
rejoicing in God their Saviour, and are as serious and 
staid in their behavior as if they were thirty or forty 
years old." (Ibid., p. 613.) On the next page he 
adds: "I made an exact inquiry into the state of the 
Society. Many children, chiefly girls, were indisput- 
ably justified; some of them were likewise sanctified, 
and were patterns of holiness." 

20. "April 19, 1788. We went on to Bolton, where 



Facts. 103 

I preached in the evening in one of the tnosi elegani 
booses in the kingdom, and to one of the liveliest 
congregations. And this 1 must avow, there is not 
such a set of singers in any of the ftfethodisl congre- 
gations in three kingdoms. There cannot be, Eor we 
have near a hundred trebles, boys and girls, selected 
out of our Sunday-schools, and accurately taught, as 
are not found together in any chapel, cathedral, or 
music room within the four seas. Besides, the spirit 
with which they all sing, and the beauty of many of 
them, so suit the melody that I defy any to excel il , 
except the singing of angels in our Father's house." 
The next day, he says: "At 8 and at 1 the house 
was thoroughly filled. About 3 I met between nine 
hundred and a thousand of the children belonging 
to our Sunday-schools. I never saw such a sight be- 
fore. They w r ere all exactly clean, as well as plain, 
in their apparel. All were serious and well-behaved. 
Many, both boys and girls, had as beautiful faces as 
I believe England can afford. When they all Bung 
together, and none of them out of tune, the melody 
was beyond that of any theater; and, what is best of 
all, many of them truly fear God, and some rejoice in 
his salvation. These are a pattern to all the town. 
Their usual diversion is to visit the poor that are sick, 
(sometimes six or eight or ten together), to exhort, 
comfort, and pray with them. Frequently ten or 
more of them get together to sing and pray for them- 
selves; sometimes thirty or forty; and are so earnest- 
ly engaged, alternately singing, praying, and crying, 
that they know not how to part. You children that 
hear this, why should you not go and do likewise? 
Let God arise and maintain his own cause, even 'out 



101 Early Conversion of Children. 

of tlic mouths of babes and sucklings.'" (Ibid., p. 
(390.) 

21. " God can as well sanctify in a day after we are 
justified as a huDdred years. Accordingly we see, in 
fact, that some of the most unquestionable witnesses 
of sanctifying grace were sanctified within a few days 
after they were justified. I have seldom known so 
devoted a soul as S. H., at Macclesfield, who was 
sanctified within nine days after she was convinced 
of sin. She was then twelve years old, and I believe 
was never afterward heard to speak an improper 
word or known to do an improper thing. Her look 
struck an awe into all that heard her. She is now in 
Abraham's bosom." (Ibid., Vol. YIL, p. 14) 

22. I make one more quotation. In the thrilling 
narrative of the great revival in Virginia before the 
Revolution, and sent to Mr. Wesley, Mr. Jarratt, an 
evangelical clergyman of the Church of England, re- 
ferring to the conversion of children, says: "Several 
of the children we have seen painfully concerned for 
the wickedness of their lives and the corruption of 
their natures. T7e have instances of this sort from 
eight to nine years old. Some of these children are 
exceeding happy in the love of God: and they speak 
of the whole process of the work of God, of their con- 
victions, the time when and the manner how they ob- 
tained deliverance, with, such clearness as might con- 
vince an atheist that this is nothing else but the great 
power of God." (Asbury's Journal.) 

There is not one ground taken in this treatise on 
the conversion of children that is not sustained by 
these wonderful facts. And let our Church be stim- 
ulated to the last effort in the conversion and training 



Facta. LOS 

of children, as if aroused by a new inspiration. Sfou 
Beem to sec Wesley and Asbury living among ns. 

Bishop Marvin Bays of himself: "When I was a 
little boy Tour years old lying on my mother's lap 

while she was singing 

Loving Jesus, gentle Lamb, 

In thy gracious hands I am ; 
Make me, Saviour, what thou art ; 
Live thyself within my heart, 

all at once my mother stopped singing and broke 
out shouting; and as she clapped her hands a tear 
dropped from her eye and fell on my cheek, when a 
delightful sensation crept over me; and I believe that 
I was born to Christ at that moment, when just four 
years of age and on my mother's knee." I give an- 
other example: While I was reading a sermon on the 
love of God, Wilbur, our little son, about four years 
of age, stopped playing with his toys at his mother's 
feet, and listened, and says that he "suddenly felt 
that he loved God, and was very happy, and resolved 
that he would always love him." I think it extremely 
probable that such were the examples of Abel, Enoch, 
and Elijah. The mother of Samuel "brought him 
unto the house of the Lord, . . . and the child 
was young. . . . And he worshiped the Lord 
there." Timothy's conviction, at least, is dated from 
his infancy: he had saving knowledge " from a child " 
— the word is brephous, an infant. Of Jeremiah it is 
said: " Before thou wast born I sanctified thee." John 
the Baptist w T as " filled with the Holy Ghost from his 
mother's womb." Who can say that those " little chil- 
dren" whom Jesus "blessed" were not then regener- 
ated? And does not prophecy mean, and the coin- 



106 Early Conversion of Children* 

mendatioii of Christ imply, that those little children 
who shouted him welcome to Jerusalem were regen- 
erated? Compare Psalms viii. 2 with Matthew xxi. 15. 

I will add a few other facts. Harvie Christie, eleven 
years old, son of a pious mother, when converted in 
a revival in Suffolk, Va,, December, 1870, said to his 
pastor, William G. Starr: "I am not afraid to die 
now, because Jesus has taken aw r ay my sins; and I 
love him so that I feel that I ought to go and tell 
everybody to come to Jesus." Lucy Myatt, Marion, 
Ala., was converted at ten years of age, and at twelve, 
in a revival, when her uncle, Mr. B., about fifty years 
of age, came forward as a penitent, she went weeping 
to her aunt, and said: "01 am so happy; I have been 
praying for my uncle all this meeting, and now he is 
seeking religion." And he was soon converted and 
joined the Church. A child inflamed with revival 
zeal! David, Wilson, and Henry Brown, brothers, 
respectively nine, eleven, and thirteen years of age, 
children of pious members of the Methodist Church, 
were converted in the same revival in Marion. David, 
when converted, came to me, and with angelic face 
said: "I am converted, and want to join the Church." 
Henry, the same night, stopped me on the way from 
church, and said: "I have done all I can do; I feel 
God has pardoned my sins, and I wanted to tell you 
so." And Wilson, a few nights after, when asked if 
he loved the Saviour, said, " My soul is as happy as a 
soul well can be;" and he put his arms around his 
saintly mother's neck, and both wept in silence amid 
the tears of the Church. 

Volumes might be filled with such examples. I 
will only add: the author of this little treatise was 



Facts. 107 

converted the second Saturday night, at half-past nine 
c/clock, in October, L828, when be whs a little more 
than thirteen years old, and now in his Beventy-fonrth 

year bears testimony to the conversion of children 
and the influence of a pious mother in his conversion 
and steadfastness. He sees her image ever near him 

like a guardian angel, and hears her low, love-tone* I 

songs in the nursery like a prophecy of reunion in 
heaven. Glory to the Lamb! 



The End, 



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